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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 238

2011-02-19T23:20:00.001-08:00

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DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 238

20 February, 2011

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INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

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1. Introduction

It's that time of the month again, and I've just posted the January 2011 NPD US video game sales analysis. Nothing too surprising, other than the Xbox 360 outselling everything, including the DS (but it was easy to outsell the DS, considering the portable console is just about to be superceded). Kinect is helping the Xbox 360, but to take it to the next level, there needs to be more Kinect games, or more varied genres, not just endless dancing and sports clones (and bad clones at that).

Game Consoles January 2011 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

-- DVDGuy

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2. Weekly News Roundup

Another week, another WNR, but not before I do my usual promotion of the January NPD US video game sales analysis post, apologise for still not writing the 2010 NPD year-in-review that I promised a month ago, and then blame it all on some game I've been wasting my time on (finished Fallout New Vegas BTW, now moved onto the new iteration of the classic timewaster, Civilization V, and also finally completing some unfinished business/achievements in Dead Rising). Anyway, regarding the January NPD figures, I mentioned that the Xbox 360's success (most popular console again) is now largely to do with Kinect, but some other commentators have rightly pointed out that Microsoft spent half a billion dollars promoting the 360 and Kinect, so the small sales increase compared to last year has come at a high price, literally. However, it's useful to point that that total retail spending on the Xbox 360 in January reached $551 million, so Microsoft can easily afford to splash the cash to promote Kinect.

Alright, let's get to the news roundup, I've got the Americans civilization to destroy afterwards, having spent the last 20 years surrounding their territory with Giant Death Robots.

Starting with copyright news, isoHunt is the target of yet another lawsuit, this time by the record industry as it seeks $4m in damages, and the closure of the BitTorrent indexer.

BitTorrent indexers are an interesting category of websites. On one hand, they're basically search engines, like Google or Bing. On the other hand, they mostly allow you to search for pirated content, and so while they do not host pirated content, they do provide the tools to be able to find and start downloading pirated content. And most of the torrents on these indexers are piracy related, that's a fact that can't really be denied. So it's quite easy to see why the MPAA and RIAA like to go after indexer, and because isoHunt is located in a country that isn't so far from the HQs of these two industry lobbies (it's closer than Sweden, anyway), it becomes a natural target.

Indexers are really the last centralized system for piracy left, with everything else decentralized in an attempt to avoid being shutdown (magnet links, DHT ). The only thing left now is to make indexing decentralized too, and it's only a matter of time before all the major torrent downloaders incorporate something this feature. An open sourced BitTorrent client with decentralized indexing like Tribler is something the MPAA and RIAA should be very afraid of because it will be almost impossible to shut down, but it's exactly what their actions are driving users towards. But I think it will be good if we get to a point where Internet piracy cannot be stopped, because perhaps finally, the industry will wake up and find better ways to combat online piracy than lawsuit after lawsuit and government intervention.

Looking at a country where online piracy already seems impossible to stop, Spain, the government's attempts to stop people downloading pirated content is meeting with heavy resistance since piracy has become mainstream. And even famous actors like Javier Bardem, who came out to support the government's initiative, wasn't spared from the public's anger. Bardem was booed and had eggs thrown at him for supporting the government. But even some in the Spanish film industry are against the government's plans to introduce tougher penalties for downloaders, including the president of the Spanish Film Academy, Álex de la Iglesia. Well former president, since he resigned his post to protest against the government's actions. Iglesia says that innovation, not litigation or legislation, is key to fighting piracy. And that viewers, even those viewing pirated content, should be respected because they're the only reason the film industry even exists. I think piracy being accepted as something mainstream isn't actually a very good development, because I still believe creators should profit from their creations. And this is why innovation must come before other countries face the same fate as Spain, and I believe innovation can save the film industry.

And litigation may become a lot harder as courts start to question the very basis of copyright lawsuits that are based on IP address evidence. Former copyright law firm ACS:Law, who tried desperately to avoid having to go to court, is in court and the judge is asking all the wrong questions, from ACS:Law's perspectives anyway. The questions being asked relate to the IP address, and whether this single piece of evidence is really enough for a copyright lawsuit. Finally, we have judge that appreciates the technical subtleties between an IP address and an actual unique identifier of a person, because as the judge rightly states, an IP address at best identifies the account holder of the Internet connection, not the actual downloader. There's also the issue of IP addresses being spoofed, or more commonly, connections being used without authorization. The judge then asks about an unauthorized access to the ISP account, or even authorized access but unauthorized usage, and whether this falls under the authorization clause of copyright law. If you lend your car to someone who says he's using it to go the store to get a few things, and then he goes and robs the store, are you an accomplice? The copyright lobby and law firms say so, the judge is not so sure.

And an update on a story reported here back in December, Matt Drudge of Drudge Report has settled with Righthaven over the unauthorized use a photo on the website. Righthaven had requested $150,000 in damages plus the seizure of Drudge's domain names for the extremely naughty use of a single photograph on the website. No detail of the settlement has emerged, so it's an unknown how much Drudge had to pay, or even if any payment was involved. My personal opinion is that Drudge should have put up much more of a fight, because the lawsuit is unreasonable in asking so much for a single photo. Had Drudge put up the same amount of resistance as fellow political website Democratic Underground, then perhaps the settlement wouldn't have been necessary Righthaven has tried to extract itself from the Democratic Underground lawsuit, fearing that they may actually have to go to court and face the same kind of questions that ACS:Law in the UK is facing (not to mention the extra cost, which goes against the business model).

Not much happening on the HD/3D front this week, so we'll skip straight to the gaming section, which is good because all of the gaming stories are copyright related anyway.

The first news I posted for this last week was the Crysis 2 leak scandal. What happened was that someone, probably someone on the development team, leaked a pre-release version of the eagerly awaited Crysis 2 game, and of course, hours later, millions of people were trying to download it.

EA, the game's publisher, took the unusual step to address this issue in their blog, blaming it all on online piracy and pirates as you would expect them to do. But that's like blaming the people who are reading the Wikileak leaks, as well as the people who published the leak cables, and not the actual person that leaked it. For me, this isn't an issue about piracy at all, this is an issue about not protecting your products properly, and the fault lies with Crytek and EA. A lot of those that downloaded the pre-release version would still buy the game, and those that had already planned to buy or ordered, would still download just because it's kind of cool to be able to get the pre-release version.

Despite EA's blame game, PC piracy is actually decreasing, says the new president of the PC Gaming Alliance, Matt Ployhar. Ployhar says that it's mostly due to new game design, where MMO games like WoW means that piracy really isn't possible, and also value-added content and services. Steam is the example that I always go to, and it's a good example of how innovation can work. I mean, this is a company that got into the PC game sales business when everyone was saying it was doomed, and they have flourished thanks to the very Internet that publishers were blaming for the industry's demise. Things like showing off your list of games to friends, your achievements, the social aspect of gaming, value-added and exclusive content and features, and of course, reasonable pricing, all counts in the end. As for DRM? Ployhar is on the sidelines when it comes to whether publishers should deploy strong DRM or not. But he does say that many legitimate users do break DRM to get a better gaming experience, something I can personally attest to having used cracks to escape the need to insert the game DVD every time (which is why I now prefer Steam games, since you can get the same thing legally plus the in-game browsing is a big plus point, considering how crap I am at most games and how much help I need during play).

And finally, an update on the PS3 Jailbreak situation. Sony has, as expected, started to ban those with hacked firmware on PSN. Harsh, perhaps, but hardly unexpected. I'm just surprised Sony didn't insert a virus into hacked PS3s that make them blow up, because you know that was probably their first choice of action until their lawyers talked them out of it. With the PS3 coming last in console sales in the US yet again, Sony can ill afford to take the focus away from their upcoming games, and onto this legal mess. Although with that said, none of this is new. Microsoft went through this, so have Nintendo with all of their consoles, and Sony are really lucky that it hasn't happened to them until now. What they shouldn't do is to overreact, which let's be honest, is something Sony are famous for. Unfortunately, launching the lawsuits and trying to sue those that even watched the hacking video on YouTube does seem like a typical Sony overreaction (although the hack itself is unprecedented, in its totality and completeness, but that's Sony's own fault for having crap security).

Alright, that's another WNR done with. Back to Civ 5 and blowing the smithereens out of the American cities with my stealth bombers equipped carriers (yes, it is possible to have stealth bombers to be stationed on a carrier despite the game not allowing you to do it direct. Simply build a plain old bomber first, base it on a carrier, and then upgrade to a stealth bomber).

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

February 20, 2011	ffdshow Rev. 3760 (generic/x64) Freeware
February 20, 2011	MeGUI 0.3.5 build 1965 Freeware
February 20, 2011	VideoSpec 0.8.5 Freeware
February 19, 2011	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.9.5 Update Freeware
February 19, 2011	PlayOn 3.2.1.1570
February 19, 2011	x264 r1913 Freeware
February 19, 2011	ProgDVB 6.60.2 Freeware
February 19, 2011	XviD4PSP 6.02 Beta (19 Feb) Freeware
February 18, 2011	LameXP 4.00 RC3 (Build #320) Freeware
February 18, 2011	TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5.0.3.29
February 18, 2011	BDFix (Free Edition) 1.6.9 Freeware
February 18, 2011	Windows 7 Codec Pack 2.9.0 Freeware
February 18, 2011	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.1.1.1
February 18, 2011	Comskip 0.80.041
February 18, 2011	PotPlayer 1.5.26923 Beta Freeware
February 18, 2011	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1794 Freeware
February 17, 2011	Cole2k Media - Codec Pack 7.9.4 Freeware
February 17, 2011	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.5.1.2935 Beta Freeware
February 17, 2011	MediaCoder 2011 RC2 5033 Freeware
February 17, 2011	EncodeHD 1.2.234.0 Freeware
February 17, 2011	Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.5 Freeware
February 17, 2011	BD Rebuilder 0.37.05 Beta Freeware
February 17, 2011	3D Subtitler 2.6.0.1 Freeware
February 16, 2011	All My Movies 6.3 build 1308
February 16, 2011	Advanced X Video Converter 6.0.5
February 16, 2011	Lagarith Lossless Video Codec 1.3.22 Freeware
February 16, 2011	AoA DVD Creator 2.5.0
February 16, 2011	DVDStyler 1.8.3 beta 1 Freeware
February 16, 2011	EMDB 1.24 Freeware
February 16, 2011	PS3Muxer 1.30 Freeware
February 15, 2011	BluffTitler 8.1.0.4
February 15, 2011	Vista Codec Package 5.9.1 Freeware
February 15, 2011	MKV2AC3 1.03.03 Freeware
February 14, 2011	OpenShot Video Editor 1.3.0 Freeware
February 14, 2011	Freemake Video Converter 2.1.0.1 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 237

2011-02-13T02:43:00.000-08:00

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DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 237

13 February, 2011

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INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

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1. Introduction

The Facebook/Twitter competiton exclusively revealed in this newsletter has finally been launched, with up to 15 $20 Amazon gift cards up for grabs for anyone who friends Digital Digest on Facebook or follows us on Twitter before March 8th. Details, including our Facebook/Twitter links, here:

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-62887-Follow-Digital-Digest-on-Facebook-Twitter-Win-Prizes.html

And as mentioned earlier, those that joined early thanks to reading this very newsletter will get better chances of winning in the draw.

Good luck!

-- DVDGuy

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2. Weekly News Roundup

Sorry for the slightly late edition of the WNR, couldn't be helped unfortunately. Luckily, there weren't too many news stories this week, especially if you really count the whole PS3 jailbreak saga as just one story, so hopefully we can get through this rather quickly.

And don't forget our Facebook/Twitter competition where anyone who likes/follows will enter into the draw to win some $20 Amazon gift cards. The more likes/follows, the more prizes (up to 15 GCs I have to save the rest of the website earnings for food), and from the current count, I should be handing out something like 7 or 8 of these GCs. So get clicking, and good luck!

Let's start with the copyright news. Last week. I talked about how increasing access to content reduces piracy, and if you take the same principle and use it for the other side, then decreasing access should lead to more piracy.

Which is exactly what experts are warning now that the UK has a new subscription channel that has made a lot of shows, previ0usly available on free-to-air TV, a channel exclusive. It means that for popular shows like Boardwalk Empire, the only way to actually watch these shows is to sign up to Sky Atlantic, or wait until the show hits DVDs/Blu-rays. Legally, that is. Illegally, well, you won't really have to wait more than 2 hours after the original US airing date to find torrents posted everywhere for that particular episode. In fact, I bet that the torrent release schedule probably beats the airing schedule of Sky Atlantic, probably even by days or even weeks. So release windows, exclusive broadcasts, and no legal free option will only really drive people to pursue less than legal options. Those more adventurous (and technical minded) will go for torrents, while there are still plenty of file sharing and streaming sites that offer the rest the ability to watch the shows without the associated legal risk (since most of the legal focus is on BitTorrent downloads these days). Now, somebody will benefit financially from exclusivity and release delays, but it all seems very short term to me, and the reason why TV piracy is on the up. It's more understandable for US cable based shows, that were never really on free-to-air anyway, but for shows that air in the US on the big networks, there's no reason why these shows shouldn't be shown simultaneously around the world (taking into account time zone differences). Do that, and I think piracy rates will be lowered by quite a bit. Yes, pirated shows don't have ads, which is a big draw card, but with PVR/DVRs and a little bit of fast forwarding, it's probably worth the pain to avoid the risk of receiving a letter from an opportunist law firm.

Speaking of file sharing sites like Hotfile, Hotfile has just been sued by the MPAA and five movie studios it represents. Now, I don't think anyone can deny that there are lots of pirated files on Hotfile, but it is an upload service, and it's the users that populate their servers. Like how people upload pirated Viacom clips to YouTube, and look how that turned out for Viacom, in the court room. The MPAA claims that Hotfile rewards users for uploading pirated movies and TV shows, because Hotfile has an affiliate program where you can earn movie depending on how popular your downloads are and how many of your downloaders sign up for the premium service. Now, I think it's also fair to admit that many pirates are probably making money this way, but then again, in my line of work, I see a lot of software publishers that also use Hotfile and other file hosting services to save money on file hosting, as well as make a couple of bucks back. So Hotfile's affiliate program really is just about growing their business and rewarding their customers, whomever they may be, and can you really blame a business for trying to do this? As for the ratio of legal to illegal downloads? I have no idea. But what can a company like Hotfile do to fight piracy, other than not exist (which is the MPAA's preferred option in fact, I think they'd rather the Internet not exist either, the same opinion also held by quite a few dictators around the world right now). They can try and filter based on file names, but all users will do is to name their downloads sdkj3489sd.zip or something similar, and piracy will continue. They can actively scan downloads, but pirates can then simply password protect and/or encrypt files (if they're not doing it already), and piracy will continue. Hotfile can put in a system where copyright holders can submit removal requests, but they already have such a system which the MPAA studios appears to be not very fond of (mainly because it means they will actually have to do a bit of work themselves). So what's a digital file locker hosting website to do? What can they do? They can get sued, apparently. And the likes of RapidShare and MegaUpload are surely not immune from similar lawsuits, although it's understandable why the MPAA chose a lower profile website like Hotfile to sue, since it's like RapidShare, which already has a lot of experience in the courts, will put up a much stronger fight.

6,500 people have been added to the "The Expendables" mass lawsuit. Nothing really surprising there, because as long as you have producers who don't care about public opinion and a negative backlash, law firms like the US Copyright Group will continue to have clients.

The PS3 jailbreak stuff will be posted under the Gaming section as per usual.

In HD/3D news, again, not a lot happening. I did catch a few 3D Blu-ray titles on sales at Amazon and elsewhere online recently, and so even without Fox/Panasonic's mean-hearted/short-sighted-ness in making Avatar 3D an exclusive (now selling for a little bit less on eBay, around $150).

The one I was tempted to buy was Piranha 3D. I loved the original Piranha movies, and this latest edition of the latest remake has both the 2D version, as well as the anaglyph version (red/blue glasses version), in addition to the 3D Blu-ray version, so it's a good introductory package for 3D (because you can always go back to the 2D version in case 3D is not for you, or if you don't have a 3D Blu-ray system right now, you can still enjoy the old fuzzy, washed out colours, style 3D with the cheap paper glasses).

While neither HD or 3D related, I did post a news item about publishers moving away from Apple's iTunes towards Android and other more open marketplaces. While software restrictions are the real issue right now, it also I guess applies to movies, and some of these movies might be HD (I'm really stretching here, aren't I). Basically, you have Apple who wants to control everything and then some, and it may be their right since they did produce the excellent iDevices in question, and most of their income is derived from having so much control. And there's also the issue of quality control too. But being able to play any movie you want simply by using a USB cable to copying it, like you would do with any USB storage device, means that Android phones appeal to those who simply cannot stand iTunes or the idea of being locked to the software. And for publishers, it means they can publish without having to hand over 30% for every transaction, or to have to abide by Apple's stupid licensing restrictions, which requires even free software have use Apple's DRM (hence the whole VLC player for iOS debacle).

And finally in gaming, most of the news as you may have guessed relates to Sony's legal action against the security researchers who uncovered the major security hole within Sony's own security infrastructure, and famous/infamous PS3 hacker George Hotz, who did the awful thing is re-enabling homebrew on the PS3 (but not piracy).

The week started with Sony attempting to get the likes of YouTube and Twitter to hand over user information in relation to anyone remotely related to the PS3 hack, even those who simply watched the hacking video on YouTube. Their intention was to expand the case to include anyone who releases or distributes custom firmware and other security hacks. Basically, a fishing expedition. But one that was ultimately denied by the judge for the case.

I might have some sympathy for Sony if they only went after those that release firmware that included the ability to play copied games. But to go after fail0verflow, basically just a security research team, and also geohot, who has time and time again denounced piracy and went out of his way to ensure his custom firmware cannot play pirated games, it seems Sony have chosen the wrong targets really. And then to try and go after Linux hackers like Graf_Chokolo, whose sole aim was only to bring Linux back to the PS3, a feature that Sony once fully supported, it just seems unnecessary.

And then Linux community responded by fooling fake PS3 VP and twitter personality Kevin Butler into re-tweeting a hacked PS3 security code. Embarrassing, and even Xbox 360's Major Nelson poked fun at the incident, but what's more worrying for Sony is that all of these are taking attention away from the console and the great games that they will have out this year, and that's something they can't really afford at the moment, not when the race with the Xbox 360 is so close and with the threat from Kinect hanging around.

And speaking of Kinect, the PlayStation Move's creator (Dr. Richard Marks) seems a bit jealous of the attention Kinect has gotten with the PC community, and wants something similar for the Move, except to make it even more accessible. I suppose this means that instead of having access to just the raw data, some of the software and processing algorithms may be opened up too, if Dr. Marks is able to overrule Sony's "we don't like anyone poking their heads under the hood" stance. Of course, what most interested the programmers was the potential of Kinect, and how different it was to any consumer tech on the market (something like this would otherwise be thousands and thousands of dollars, for the professionals market). The Move, while somewhat innovative, is really just a more accurate Wii, and programmers have already had their fun with hacking the Wii-mote when it first came out. If anything, the PlayStation Eye is a more interesting device, but one that still can't compare to the Kinect in terms of innovation.

And so, we come to the end of another edition of the Weekly News Roundup. Enjoy your week!

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

February 13, 2011	AvsPmod 2.0.6 Freeware
February 13, 2011	VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264 4.20.6.614 Beta
February 13, 2011	SUPER v2011.build.46 Freeware
February 13, 2011	LameXP 4.00 Beta RC1 (Build #301) Freeware
February 13, 2011	MeGUI 0.3.5 build 1938 Freeware
February 12, 2011	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.7.9 Freeware
February 12, 2011	EncodeHD 12.233.0 Freeware
February 12, 2011	ProgDVB 6.60 Freeware
February 11, 2011	LAV Filters 0.14 Freeware
February 11, 2011	Fraps 3.2.9
February 11, 2011	Cinematize for Mac 3.0
February 11, 2011	VideoCacheView 1.86 Freeware
February 11, 2011	Orb 3.05.0029 Freeware
February 11, 2011	PlayOn 3.1.27.1540
February 11, 2011	Subtitle Edit 3.1 RC2 Freeware
February 11, 2011	BDFix 1.6.7
February 11, 2011	Cinematize for Windows 3.0
February 10, 2011	MediaCoder 2011 RC2 5025 Freeware
February 10, 2011	ffdshow Rev. 3757 (generic/x64) Freeware
February 10, 2011	Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.4 Freeware
February 9, 2011	J. River Media Center 15.0.174
February 9, 2011	PotPlayer 1.5.26758 Beta Freeware
February 8, 2011	MediaLink 2.14
February 8, 2011	Smart Cutter Ps/Ts 1.3.6
February 8, 2011	BurnAware Free Edition 3.1.3 Freeware
February 8, 2011	BD Rebuilder 0.37.04 Beta Freeware
February 7, 2011	x264 r1900 Freeware
February 7, 2011	D2MP 4.31 Freeware
February 6, 2011	DVD Profiler 3.7.2
February 6, 2011	PopCorn MKV AudioConverter 1.84.0 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 236

2011-02-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

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DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 236

6 February, 2011

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INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

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1. Introduction

Just what would make people stop pirating stuff? It seems not a lot, according to a new "manifesto" that people are not encouraged to sign, which people promise not to download pirated movies and TV shows as long as the TV and movie studios do what's required, like reasonable pricing and an end to release windows.

-- DVDGuy

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2. Weekly News Roundup

Welcome to a new month, the month with arguably the hardest to spell name (Febuary? Februarey?), and also the hardest to remember in terms of number of days it has (hint, it's not 30 or 31, and it's not always the same every year either). February is what you would call "high maintenance", if it were a person.

The promised Facebook/Twitter competition should be launched in the next day or two. There's nothing you actually need to do, if you're already liked our Facebook page and/or followed us on Twitter, you'll automatically be entered into the draw to win some Amazon gift certificates (those that signed up before early will receive a better chance to win). Full details to be posted when I make it up. Before then, we have this week's news to go through, so let's get started.

In copyright news, the big headline of the week, at least according to the MPAA, was that almost a quarter of the world's web traffic was piracy related.

To be honest, I had expected a lot more than that, considering that out of the big files you can download, Linux ISOs aside, I can't really think of a lot of legal content that's 8GB or 12GB in size, whereas many pirated games are. Without iTunes HD movie downloads, and Steam, the quoted 23.8% of global traffic being pirated related, could have been a lot higher. The study was commissioned by NBC Universal, but it was the MPAA that screamed the loudest at the findings. Except, as usual, they missed some really important points in the report. One interesting note was that the US actually had a lower piracy rate than the rest of the world, which is strange because most of the pirated stuff comes from the US (movies, TV shows, games), and what with the poor economy and relatively cheap Internet, you just expected the US to be the lead in terms of piracy. Another interesting result was that only 2.9% of downloads on the BitTorrent networks that the study monitored were for music, with films and TV accounting for nearly half of the downloads (and 35.8% being pornography).

The theory is that the US has greater access to legal content, and so there's less reason for many to get content via illegal sources. This is definitely true with TV shows, since Hulu and the other streaming networks, which block access from outside the US, means that there's almost no reason to download torrents of the latest episodes. The low number of music downloads could be because that torrents have never been the best way to download music, not when LimeWire was around anyway. But it could also be because music availability is greater in the US, and that music, unlike movies and especially TV shows, don't suffer from the same sort of delay releases and release windows, that actively prevents people from purchasing in order to maximize profits for publishers from different channels. In this day and age, having to wait a whole week before you have access to the latest episode of say The Office or even months before you can buy Boardwalk Empire on DVD/Blu-ray, just doesn't work. When your friends or co-workers are downloading/streaming illegally and then discussing the latest episodes, you almost have to download/stream it yourself. And porn? Well, nobody wants to have to pay for porn, or to have something less than innocent show up on their credit card statement, so that's another reason why it's so popular.

So the fact that "it's free", while I do agree has a lot to do with why pirated content is so attractive, but there are clearly other factors in play that should not be ignored, if one is really intent on reducing online piracy. Unfortunately, groups like the MPAA and RIAA's goal is to eventually get legislation that guarantees their revenue stream, and online piracy just happens to be a convenient excuse at the moment. It's an easy argument to convince ignorant politicians, unaware of just what the Internet is all about. With all the studies being done, none has even tried to find out the real financial cost of piracy, not the billions upon billions imagined by the MPAA/RIAA. Not in the US anyway. But a Japanese government backed think-tank has looked at the problem, and has found some interesting answers. In regards to Anime and online streaming and P2P downloads via the popular (in Japan) Winny software tool, the study found that these kinds of piracy not only did not hurt DVD sales, it actually helped. YouTube uploads of Anime episodes actually helped to generate more sales, while P2P downloads did not hurt sales at all, only rentals. The promotional effects of YouTube uploads, even of full episodes, has been known for a while now, and you'd be hard pressed to find one publisher that doesn't utilize YouTube for promotional purposes. And as for P2P downloads, with DVDs so cheap and online piracy so easily accessible for so long, people who still buy DVDs will always buy DVDs (or Blu-rays), in my opinions, because if free and easy hasn't convinced you do break the law, nothing will (and for people who like to collect things, like me, buying and downloading are two totally separate things).

And the findings of these reports don't really contradict a study by Warner Bros. back in December, where the conclusion there seem to be that a lot of people downloading pirated TV shows and movies are downloading the foreign dubbed version, which would otherwise not be available via legal means. And that by not fulfilling the needs of the market, that legitimate consumers are being pushed into pursuing content via other means, including illegal means. Which brings us to this week's most interesting copyright related news story the Don't Make Me Steal manifesto. What is it? Well, it's basically a list of demands, that if met, the people who signed the manifesto would all promise not to download pirated movie of TV content. It sounds a bit like a threat, which is why it's controversial (and I don't think the "Don't Make Me Steal" title is a good one, because in the end, nobody "makes" you steal, it's still a choice, even if it is sometimes the most sensible one). But these are not really unreasonable demands. They're not demanding everything be free, and actually, a lot of demands match up perfectly to what the recent studies have concluded, that a lot of people are being under-served. Removing release windows, reasonable pricing (buying DVD/Blu-rays should not cost more than a movie ticket, and rentals should not cost more than a third of the same ticket), greater access to dubs and subtitles, no DRM, and a lot of others things I suspect that the movie/TV industry will eventually figure out on their own and implement. So if this manifesto can change the debate from one of "how should we punish those that pirate stuff" to "how do we encourage people not to pirating stuff", then it has served its purpose. It shows there are plenty of things movie and TV studios can do to reduce piracy, and they should at least give these suggestions some serious thought before trying to shift the blame and responsibility to everyone else.

All of this comes as the number of individuals sued by mass piracy lawsuits reached 100,000 in the US alone. Both piracy and anti-piracy, in my opinion, has gotten out of control, and the only real solution is to examine the real causes behind piracy. Or it will end up becoming a futile fight, where the process becomes a daily grind of trying to put out millions of fires with no positive effect towards actually solving the problem, something that was addressed well by the TV show The Wire (in relation to the war on drugs, but the idea is the same). How many websites do you have to get Homeland Security to shut down before the war on piracy can be won? How many civil rights do we have to sacrifice in order for the entertainment industry to keep their dying business model? How many people must be sued for illegal downloads before people stop downloading? And how long would all of these actions take before the problem is solve. Years? Decades? Never?

And not wanting to enjoy schadenfreude, Intel's problems with Sandy Bridge seems like karma biting back for putting in hardware DRM into the new chip, and then for not even admitting it was DRM, even though it clearly was. The actual problem appears not to be that serious, it's a flaw on the motherboard chipset that Sandy Bridge CPUs rely on, and it has to do with the SATA2 controller part which will fail over time for a small percentage of chips. Disabling the rogue transistor, or simply use the provided SATA3 ports instead, would be a simple workaround, at least until Intel can provide details on how they plan to fix the problem. Still, had Intel spent more time testing Cougar Point, instead of getting all giddy at the prospect of adding hardware DRM, maybe they could have avoided the potential billion dollar problem.

Onto HD/3D news, not a whole lot happening really in the world of Blu-ray or 3D. But for general HD, and I know I'm stretching a bit here, then the news that Microsoft plans to solve Google's H.264 problem may be somewhat interesting.

Google dropped support for H.264 as part of its HTML5 implementation, and this means that HTML5 videos that use H.264 would not actually work on Google's Chrome browser, which is a shame. Google quotes wanting to support "open software" as the reason, despite the fact that they're the biggest supporters of the closed Adobe Flash software, being the only browser to bundle Flash with the default download. But Microsoft has been actively trying to get people to use H.264 for HTML5, no doubt because they own lots of patents on the format, and so they've released a Chrome extension that brings back H.264 support, for those with Windows 7 anyway (which has H.264 decoding built natively into the OS). They did the same thing for Firefox a couple of months ago, so this move wasn't unexpected. And Google can hardly complain, considering their stance towards Flash.

You may ask what is Google's motive behind dropping H.264, if it wasn't for the sake of "openness"? Some would say it's because they want people to use their own WebM format, for which Google owns the patents on (but has decided, for now, not to charge royalty). Maybe. But Google's real target, in my opinion, is Apple. Apple loves H.264, they also only support HTML5 (not Flash) on their iDevices, and being a fairly closed system in which Apple has control over everything, it's unlikely WebM support will be implemented without Apple's permission for these devices and Safari in general. So Google's move alienates Apple, while their own Android platform still manages to support H.264, Flash and WebM, with hardware acceleration too even. To me, this is a calculated move against Apple, forcing Apple to either accept WebM and implement hardware support for it, or to live with an YouTube app that runs poorly on iDevices. And Google's alliance with Flash, and Apple's anti-Flash stance, just further confirms what I and many others think.

Of course, there's no guarantee that WebM will be adopted, not even by YouTube. In fact, this move most likely benefits Adobe and Flash, since it then becomes the only way to tie everything together, and get everything working, especially since Adobe has already announced they will add WebM support to Flash. And H.264 will be here to stay, as long as Flash is here to stay, and as long as Blu-ray and iTunes still exists.

Another week, and the cat and mouse game between Sony and PS3 hackers continue. Sony brought out the 3.56 firmware to counter the hacked 3.55 firmware, but the process of hacking 3.56 has already begun and it's a matter of when, not if, it will get hacked (because once the master key and the method it can be obtained became public, it's really game over for that security platform).

And as expected, Sony's war against hackers has caused its first piece of collateral damage, with PS3 owners that have upgraded their hard-drives being the first set of victim. Sony active encourages people to upgrade the PS3's hard-drive, and even provides instructions on how to do it online (and it doesn't void warranty either). They did this to counter the over-priced Xbox 360 hard-drive add-ons. But people who installed 3.56 found that their upgraded HDDs would no longer work, with a "The data is corrupted" error, even after reformatting. Apparently, Sony re-released 3.56 just now and it might have fixed the problem, but you need the original HDD to first upgrade to the new 3.56 (Sony didn't call it 3.57 because they didn't want to admit to their mistake? It's not the first time either ), and then upgrade your HDD. Those without the original HDD (which has to still retains the original formatting) are still stuck with a bricked console, unfortunately. 3.57 will hopefully be here next week, but who knows.

So once again the advice is don't upgrade your PS3's firmware until at least a week after release. Yes, it's a week that you may not be able to play online (or even certain games offline, which prevents play without an active PSN connection, which of course requires the latest firmware). I think if Sony is intent on releasing firmware updates so frequently, the least they should offer is a window in which both old and new firmware versions can be used, although I suppose there are huge technical issues related to supporting two firmware versions at the same time on PSN.

So that's it for another week. Hope you've enjoyed this issue of the WNR. Have a good one and see you at the same time next week.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

February 6, 2011	MediaCoder 2011 RC2 5015 Freeware
February 6, 2011	Jubler 4.6.1 Freeware
February 6, 2011	BDtoAVCHD 1.3.3 Freeware
February 6, 2011	Subs Factory 1.3.2 Freeware
February 5, 2011	ProgDVB 6.51.7 Freeware
February 5, 2011	LameXP 4.00 Beta-3 (Build #290) Freeware
February 5, 2011	DVDRemaster Pro 7.0
February 5, 2011	DVDRemaster Standard 7.0
February 5, 2011	TMP - Thies Media Project 0.1.5.4 Freeware
February 4, 2011	TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5.0.2.22
February 4, 2011	Submerge 1.9.6
February 4, 2011	Fraps 3.2.8
February 4, 2011	3D Subtitler 2.5.1.0 Freeware
February 4, 2011	kmttg v0p7t Freeware
February 4, 2011	Avanti 0.5.3 Freeware
February 4, 2011	VideoInspector 2.2.7
February 4, 2011	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.5.1.2910 Beta Freeware
February 3, 2011	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.1.0.8
February 3, 2011	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1793 Freeware
February 3, 2011	PotPlayer 1.5.26695 Beta Freeware
February 3, 2011	VideoCacheView 1.85 Freeware
February 2, 2011	DVDStyler 1.8.2.1 Freeware
February 2, 2011	BurnAware Free Edition 3.1.2 Freeware
February 2, 2011	VideoLAN (VLC) 1.1.7 Freeware
February 2, 2011	DVD PixPlay 6.20
February 2, 2011	MKVToolnix 4.5.0 Freeware
February 2, 2011	AVI ReComp 1.5.2 Freeware
February 1, 2011	Freemake Video Converter 2.0.1.2 Freeware
January 31, 2011	AVStoDVD 2.3.4 Freeware
January 31, 2011	MeGUI 0.3.5 build 1928 Freeware
January 30, 2011	Any Video Converter Free 3.18 Freeware
January 30, 2011	ImTOO Video Converter Ultimate 6.5.2.0125

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 235

2011-01-30T00:34:00.000-08:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 235

30 January, 2011

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INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

I actually managed to make an Android app, a game no less. Sure, it crashes every 5 minutes (if not a lot sooner) and the graphics are crude to say the last (I'm pretending it was "by design"), and that most people when faced with the decision was to pay $0.96 for it or not have chosen "or not", but it's better than nothing I suppose. Search for my Star Wars based Android game on Market under "Paper (Star) Wars", or use the link below.

Paper (Star) Wars

-- DVDGuy

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2. Weekly News Roundup

It looks like my pathetic begging last week paid off, sort of, as I managed to get a few likes on Digital Digest's Facebook page, and a few more on Twitter. All those that participated will be noted, and when the competition launches next week or the week after, you shall all be rewarded handsomely (with better chances at winning)!

The current set up means every news article posted on the Digital Digest website, plus every blog and posts in the deals & freebies section, will all be added to the feeds, allowing for an easy way to get notified of updates on the websites. And occasionally, I will post a few things that aren't really big enough to make the news, but are nonetheless interesting. One thing I did post about was my first attempt at an Android app, a game based on a paper based game based on video games based a movie. Paper (Star) Wars is my take on a paper based Star Wars game that I used to play with friends in middle school. It's my first app, so please be kind and tolerant of the numerous bugs within the game. There's a free "Not Very Special Edition" and a paid for version for around a buck, depending on exchange rates.

Self promotion finished, time for this week's news, and there's plenty to go through so let's get started.

Let's start the copyright news, the UK may have seen a change of government, the non violent kind, but its anti-piracy policies remains unchanged it seems. Their proposed three-strikes system, which will first start with a warning-but-no-action system, is set to be introduced, and UK ISPs will have to pay 25% of the cost of enforcing this law which will see private subscriber data being given to copyright holders.

In other words, the UK government thinks that ISPs are at least 25% responsible for anti-piracy policing on the net, even though they don't receive any benefits from it at all if this thing works (and the UK government optimistically thinks that it will reduce online piracy by 50% amazing!). So it seems ISPs have been cast as a guilty party. But ISPs will no doubt pass on the cost to subscribers. So it seems, we're all being cast as the guilty party. And with higher ISP costs, and so less money to spend online, and when people start getting booted off the Internet, all of these actions which will no doubt affect the Internet economy, most likely the legitimate kind. Pirates will be pirates, and they will find (and have found) ways around being monitored, so I would really like to see how the UK government comes up with the figure of £200m as the amount of benefits that will result from this. They would be lucky to get away with less than £200m of damages to the economy. But this whole thing has become an ideological crusade, so common sense went out the window ages ago.

The new UK law should come into affect as anti-piracy law firms in the UK might be starting to wrap up their profit seeking mass lawsuit enterprises, when the head of one of the most notorious anti-piracy law firms, ACS:Law, said in court that his firm was no longer involved in anti-piracy stuff due to "death threats and bomb threats", amongst other things (no longer profitable?). Not to condone threats of this kind, which is totally unacceptable despite the number of people ACS:Law has pissed off in recent times, but that's the side effect of the kind of business ACS:Law is involved in, just as its predecessor Davenport Lyons realised when they also quit the game. And they were in court because the judge found their lawsuit somewhat dubious and wanted to examine it further, despite ACS:Law's attempt to drop the lawsuits against the downloaders in question, in a last ditch attempt to avoid having any kind of court ruling on the matter (because it could go either way, and it looks like it's going the wrong way for ACS:Law). The best way to go after these law firms is to take a leaf out of the entertainment lobby's latest doctrine on online anti-piracy: go after their revenue source. If no profit can be made via mass lawsuits, because perhaps it's difficult to ascertain jurisdiction or that people are fighting back by tying up these law firms in paper work, then these kinds of law suits will stop.

But these lawsuits are still gaining popularity in the US, where this week, hundreds more were sued for download the Paris Hilton sex tapes. I wonder if Paris Hilton gets a percentage of the settlement fees, and if she does, then that's one more reason to fight these lawsuits as tenaciously as possible. And people seeking to download this "movie" illegally be warned the publishers, XPAYS, is still monitoring download networks for potential targets. But finding a torrent of this film may have just gotten about 1.5% harder, thanks to Google's new filtering scheme which became active this week, something they warned us would happen back in December. It's no doubt Google's way to try and appease the entertainment industry, not that they would be pleased much by this, since only the suggested search phrases as part of auto-complete and instant search have been filtered the results are still the same as before. And the way Google has did it was full of inconsistencies, like why a BitTorrent client software like uTorrent needs to be filtered at all (and yet, other popular clients like BitComet or Vuze are not filtered), or why RapidShare is filtered, but not MediaFire. In any case, this latest move by Google sets a very dangerous precedent, and goes completely against the Mountain View company's principles on the open web. And as mentioned before, it will do little to appease the entertainment industry and instead, it will just make them ask the question "if you can filter recommended search phrases, why can't you also filter out the results". An appeasement of groups backed by a Fascist launched organization, yeah that doesn't sound familiar at all. Maybe it's just me, but has Google abandoned their "do no evil" policy, since they're very much acting like just any other corporation these days. Even their recent withdrawal of support for H.264 in Chrome was very much an exercise in protecting self-interests (dropping H.264 so people will have to adopt their own WebM, for example), as opposed to their stated goal of supporting open software this is the very same company that bundles Adobe Flash with the same browser in question, so it's a bit rich for them to lecture other on support of open platforms.

For all of the entertainment industry's pomp and bluster, they still haven't even managed to close down The Pirate Bay. They talk big about closing down a lot of websites, another 50 this week apparently, but they don't dare mention how many new websites spring up the second they close down one, fairly obscure, torrent indexer. And if The Pirate Bay people are to be believed, the RIAA are in for a rude awakening when TPB launches its music sharing service in a few months time. No details as yet, or even confirmation as to whether this thing is real or not, but a TPB insider has promised that this thing will scare the pants off the RIAA. It's set to be launched around the 78th birthday of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, and I thought it was interesting that this organization was launched by none other than Mussolini in 1933 (yes, that Mussolini). So when old Benito said that "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power," he wasn't that far off the mark it seems (ignoring the fact that he was talking about a totally different kind of "corporate" to today's corporations).

And in potential silly DRM news of the week, how about DRM'd web images? Not quite, but it only takes a little bit of effort to turn this thing into the online newspaper's favourite new toy, as expiring image links is quite effective at cutting down hot linking. Of course, those that really do want to steal your pics will just do so via a print-screen, while you make your legitimate visitors download and install plug-in after plug-in just to view the damn image. A totally ineffective DRM which only makes the life of legitimate users that much more painful. So definitely happening, then.

Onto HD/3D news, price of Blu-ray players are tipped to drop below $40 in 2011. Not that surprising when you consider that it's been available for around $50 already.

But this does mean one thing: if you don't have a Blu-ray player now, you may just not want or need one. They're so cheap now, when they're not being given away freely with TV purchases, that there really aren't any other excuses left for people not to have one. And with retailers often discounting Blu-ray/combo versions of movies below the price of DVD sets, it's a no brainer. And so much for the higher premiums manufacturers had hoped that Blu-ray hardware (and movies) would bring on a more permanent basis.

So if plain old Blu-ray isn't helping to bring in higher premiums, perhaps the 3D kind will. And when manufacturers and studios are not trying to kill the format by signing excruciatingly long exclusivity deals (I'm looking at you, Panasonic and Fox) on titles that will launch the format, there's also the issue that many people just can't stand watching 3D. I think I'm one of these people, since watching 3D for more than half an hour makes me uncomfortable, and watching something like Avatar all the way through would probably kill me (or at least make me very very sick). But I did still buy a 3D TV, and I've definitely paid more money for even less interesting gimmicks before. Expect all TVs to have 3D support by the end of the year though, and competition will ensure the higher premiums will be gone by then too.

And going back to the Chrome/H.264 decision I referred to above, there's a new service that aims to end the problem of cross-browser compatibility for uploaded web videos. Vid.ly takes in your videos and then transcode them millions of times (or just a dozen times, I don't know) so that it will work on any browser, regardless of whether it took the very corporate decision to back one of its own, albeit open, video standards, or whether it's backing a video standard that it owns a lot of patent on. And the same for mobile videos, iOS, Android, Blackberry. I fed the service my recently uploaded Transformers: Dark of the Moon HD 1080p Trailer. Vid.ly ate it up, and spat out a link half an hour later, and I've put the sample embed video and mobile video links in this forum thread. For no other reason, it's a great way to compare the various qualities of web video standards, H.264 vs WebM vs Theora, as the same embed code automatically detects what software you're using and gives you the compatible stream (it looks by far the worst on Firefox at the moment, as it uses Ogg Theora). Anyway, an interesting service that may bypass the whole very confusing, and annoying, HTML5 format wars.

And last but not least, in gaming, Sony has reacted to the hacked 3.55 firmware by releasing the 3.65 firmware. And it was hacked within hours. Stable. Doors. Horse. Bolted.

Sony did have better success in the courts, with the judge granting a temporary injunction against, I don't know what, geohot's firmware or something. Because a temporary injunction on fail0verflow's research into pointing out the security flaw on the PS3, doesn't seem to make much sense, as it's now common knowledge that Sony doesn't know the difference between a constant and a randomly generated number.

But Sony are at their best when they show off cool stuff, as opposed to trying all sorts of anti-piracy measures, and they did impress a lot of people and refocus people's thoughts away from the PS3 security disaster, by revealing the NGP the Next Generation Portable the successor to the ailing (some would argue, dead and buried) PSP. It does seem pretty cool, all the best features from phones (Wi-Fi, GPS, multiple cameras, multi-touch), a kick-ass processor that can run PS3 games, albeit at the reduced resolution of the still kick-ass OLED screen (960×544). Still, it faces stiff competition from smartphones, the 3DS and tablets, all vying for a share of the portable gaming market these days (although Sony has promised a common development platform for its Android phones and the NGP, so we know at least Angry Birds will be on the NGP). Nobody knows what the price of the NGP will be, but with so much tech inside, it can't be cheap, or can't be cheaper than the 3DS, right?

Speaking of the 3DS, yes, it will have region-control, and downloaded games won't be transferable to another console, at least not at first.

And so that's it for another week. Have a good one and see you at the same time, same place, in 7 days.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

January 30, 2011	Bencos 2011-01-29 dev Freeware
January 30, 2011	MeGUI 0.3.5 build 1927 Freeware
January 30, 2011	x264 r1884 Freeware
January 30, 2011	TS-Doctor 1.0.89 Freeware
January 29, 2011	PlayOn 3.1.24.1504
January 29, 2011	Connect360 3.55
January 29, 2011	ProgDVB 6.51.6 Freeware
January 29, 2011	Codec Tweak Tool 4.7.3 Freeware
January 29, 2011	K-Lite Codec Pack 64-Bit 4.4.0 Freeware
January 29, 2011	K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.9.0 Freeware
January 29, 2011	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.9.0 Freeware
January 28, 2011	Free AVCHD Editor 0.4.1.1 Freeware
January 28, 2011	Freemake Video Converter 2.0.1 Freeware
January 28, 2011	WinMPG Video Convert 9.2.1
January 28, 2011	BDFix 1.6.6
January 28, 2011	DVD PixPlay 6.19
January 28, 2011	PS3Muxer 1.29 Freeware
January 27, 2011	Easy DV to DVD 6.0.14.1104
January 27, 2011	Lightworks 10.0.3 Beta Freeware
January 27, 2011	RipBot264 1.16.4 Freeware
January 27, 2011	LameXP 4.00 TechPreview Build #267 Freeware
January 27, 2011	VSO Blu-ray to DVD Converter 1.1.0.13
January 27, 2011	PotPlayer 1.5.26654 Beta Freeware
January 27, 2011	MC-TVConverter 1.5.0 Freeware
January 27, 2011	MKVExtractGUI-2 2.2.2.2 Freeware
January 27, 2011	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1750 Freeware
January 25, 2011	XviD4PSP 6.0 Beta (24 Jan) Freeware
January 25, 2011	MediaInfo 0.7.41 Freeware
January 24, 2011	Jaksta 4.1.1.0
January 24, 2011	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.1.0.7
January 24, 2011	Serviio 0.5.0 Freeware
January 24, 2011	VideoLAN (VLC) 1.1.6 Freeware
January 24, 2011	MKV2AC3 1.03.02 Freeware
January 24, 2011	Mp3tag 2.48 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 234

2011-01-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

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DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 234

23 January, 2011

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INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

Digital Digest has entered the social media age, with a Facebook page and Twitter account. Now Digital Digest will only have to figure out how to use Facebook and Twitter, and then beg/bribe people to become friends and followers, and then global domination is only a step away!

-- DVDGuy

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2. Weekly News Roundup

You may have noticed something different at the bottom of this blog (if you're viewing this post on my blog, as opposed to through the newsletter that is) that's right, WNR (via Digital Digest) has joined the 21st century social media thingamajig. This means that if you like this post, you can use one of the dozens of social media tools to let others know, and help me increase my readership numbers into double (or even triple!) digits. In addition, I've also set up what the kids call a 'book of faces' page right here (where every single news, deals and blog post will be pinned up on the wall, or something like that), and even managed to employ the services of that blue twittering bird here. So please, friend, follow, tweet, twang, hurl, zomg me on Facebook and Twitter, since I'm a bit lonely and pathetic on there at the moment and will soon have to resort to making up fake accounts just so I have some "friends". And many of the news stories that I link to in the WNR will now be to the Digital Digest news section (as opposed to the forum thread like before, although a link to the relevant forum threads will still be located at the end of the news articles), and there, you will also see FB like buttons, Twitter tweet buttons, and even a FB powered comments section where you can point out the numerous speling mistakes I've made in the news post.

And there might be something in it for those of you that goes through the laborious process of clicking on a button to indicate your "friendship" or "cult follower status" with me, and the earlier you do it (and the greater number of you who do it) will increase the likelihood of something like this happening. Did someone say prizes? Amazon gift certificates? Details (if any) to be released soon. Just to be clear, yes, I am trying to buy some friends, so fingers crossed it works and I get enough likes and followers to make launching a competition possible!

Lots of news this week, so let's get started.

Let's start the copyright news. The big wigs at the music arms of Sony and Universal did some brain storming the other day and came up with a new brilliant way to combat piracy: allow people to actually buy the music!

Apparently, not allowing people to legally buy something actually encourages people to seek illegal ways to obtain the same content, which must have come as a big shock to the Sony and Universal execs when their million dollar research revealed these findings, or something. Currently, when new music is released, it's given airtime on the radio during an exclusive period before it was possible to buy the music legally, but research found that people searching for the new songs peaked weeks before the start of the sales period, and so, naturally, people just managed to get the song from "other" sources. So now, music will be made available for sale at the same time as when the radio airplay period starts, in a bid to curb online piracy. And it will only take a dozen more research reports before Sony, Universal and others realize that the same thing works for TV shows and movies, and that rental, release windows and delaying new TV show episodes by as long as 6 month in overseas markets, all contribute to the online piracy phenomenon.

Still staying in the music industry, the RIAA this week issued more threats to companies and organizations that it perceives as potential partners in the CRusade Against Piracy (CRAP). The RIAA knows that the only way it can get others to do their dirty work in the futile war against online piracy (FWOP) is to threaten them. This time, it's ICANN, the people responsible for making the domain name standards, and the RIAA warns them that piracy syndicates might hijack planned music based TLDs like .music. Like as if music piracy websites would need to bother with .music, not if .riaasucks is available. It's very likely though that the warning comes because the RIAA wants control of .music, but doesn't have the cash to bid for it, and so they're dreaming up an imaginary threat to force ICANN's hands, a tactic that has worked well with governments around the world.

A threat that is not so imaginary is malware. Hands up those that *haven't* been affected by malware, or know someone that has. Malware costs the economy something like $50+ billion a year, that's even more than the imaginary numbers that the RIAA likes to invent, and yet it seems there's hardly any action against the spread of malware, apart from the odd arrest of hacker or two, and only when the malware story makes national news (and this happens only because it infected all the computers at said news network). And yet, the US government alone is throwing millions of dollars and resources of the FBI, Homeland Security at fighting the online piracy problem, which may or may not even be a problem. I mention all this because of the story this week that malware writers are now using that old RIAA favourite, DRM, to protect their toolkits to sell or rent to those seeking to make a profit infecting unsuspecting servers and computers. But we already know for a fact the resources at the FBI have already been diverted away from investigating online and identity fraud, towards online piracy investigations, but I guess that's because there is no such things as the "online fraud victims" lobby, or at least it doesn't have as much cash to splash around compared to the entertainment lobby (probably because all of their cash has already been stolen via malware and identify fraud).

Onto HD/3D news, I posted a story about LG's plans to make people buy more 3D TVs that use passive glasses, but mainly, it was just an excuse to post a link to this video.

But 3D TVs using passive glasses do have some advantages, after all, cinema 3D presentations are mostly based on the same technology. Sure, you won't get a 1080p picture, but if it means less headaches and cheaper glasses, then it's probably a good thing. Having had my 3D TV for about 6 month now, I'm still firmly convinced that 3D is still very much a gimmick, although one that's very likely to be in every TV pretty soon (but only the active glasses kind, since it's very inexpensive to add active glasses 3D support to HDTVs).

Something that also smells very gimmicky, possibly literally at some stage, is smell-o-vision. But what caught my eye about Scent Science's new ScentScape machine is the low price attached to it. I don't think it makes a huge difference to me if I can smell burning petrol or not as I blow up yet another car with my RPG in GTA IV, but for $70, the price of the ScentScape machine, it might just be worth a try. I wonder though what the most popular smells would be. Gunpowder would be one, blood another. But I do have reservations about playing a game like Fallout: New Vegas. I can't imagine the post apocalyptic world and its inhabitants (and mutants) smelling very nice at all! Nor would watching Generation Kill (brilliant mini-series by the way) be pleasant if "a MOPP suit that smells like four days of piss and ball sweat" was made a reality, smell wise.

And Star Wars on Blu-ray now has a solid release date. September 27th, 2011. It will be the best seller on Blu-ray to date when released, I suspect.

And finally in gaming, some new developments in the PS3 hack saga. Sony's court case against fail0verflow and geohot has been delayed due to jurisdiction issues relating to the fact that geohot, aka Geroge Hotz, does not live in California where the lawsuit was filed. Sony reasoned with the judge that, due to various clauses in the PSN user agreement and whatnot, it could still sue someone who doesn't live in California, in California, but the judge has reservations about allowing Sony to bypass jurisdiction so easily this way. The EFF has also come out attacking Sony's lawsuit, saying it sends a 'dangerous message', suing security researchers for exposing security flaws, when really, Sony should had worked with people like Hotz to plug any security holes before the console was released. Both fail0verflow and geohot stressed that they did this for academic purposes and for enabling homebrew, and all have made sure that piracy would not be promoted or allowed directly by their hacks (although indirectly, the hack can be further modified to enable piracy). So instead of suing those that actually use this hack to allow piracy, Sony are suing the guys that actually exposed the hack. It's like arresting the guy who pointed out to you that your car is unlocked, as opposed to the guy who actually stole your car.

More custom firmware has been released, this time by infamous Wii hacker Waninkoko, and this ones does allow pirated games to work. But the firmware apparently bricks older PS3s, those with 256MB NAND chips, a list of affected models here. The warning forum user Budreaux posted in the forum thread should be listened to playing around with hacked firmware is a quick way to brick your PS3, void you warranty, and get you banned on PSN probably, not to mention possibly breaking the law depending on where you are. So do it strictly at your own risk!

And games that relied on the PS3's now hacked security framework are beginning to feel the effect, with Modern Warfare 2 servers hacked to erase gamer scores and all sorts of other things that make the experience unbearable to gamers. Not all games are affected because developers wisely decided that solely relying on Sony's framework wasn't a good idea.

And the worst is yet to come, since Sony's official response will almost certainly be harsh. Remember that this is the same company that thought a rootkit was a good idea. And so it comes as no surprise that Sony may be planning to bring serial keys to PS3 games in a bid to curb piracy. Not only do you have to type in the 16 character serial code into your PS3, which is painful enough already, these keys may only be reused 5 times, which makes selling and buying second hand games that much more annoying. And it will also mean that you won't be able to play offline games without going online for authentication. But at this stage, this is just a unsubstantiated rumour, so who knows.

Another unsubstantiated rumous is that the Nintendo 3DS, still weeks away from an official release, has already been hacked despite Nintendo's assurance of better anti-piracy measures. This does not surprise me one bit, if it's true.

And even though geohot is busy defending himself against Sony's legal onslaught, he still has time to hack, this time, Windows Phone 7. But Microsoft, probably giddy from the disasters befalling the PS3 at the moment, isn't so mad at geohot, and has even promised to work together to "let dev creativity flourish". This after Microsoft actively not caring about people hacking the Kinect has the corporate monster changed?

Speaking of Kinect, the PR machine rolled on, and just like how the Wii gained public exposure due to the thousands of broken TV screens and vases, "Wii tennis elbow" and other medical phenomenons, the Kinect is gaining similar public exposure via YouTube 'Kinect Fail' videos and reports of even more serious injuries, and even a potential arrest. These fluff pieces may all sound like bad publicity, but there is no such thing as bad publicity, because everyone thinks that these things only happens to stupid people, not themselves, so there is no way one would get 'Kinect Sports volleyball shoulders' that is so painful that it makes sleeping difficult. Ow.

And that's all for this week.

checks FB and Twitter for the 15th time today still no likes or followers :(

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

January 23, 2011	VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264 4.20.6.612 Beta
January 22, 2011	Windows 7 Codec Pack 2.7.0 Freeware
January 22, 2011	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.8.4 Update Freeware
January 22, 2011	OpenSubtitles MKV Player 4.5 Freeware
January 22, 2011	Connect360 3.53
January 22, 2011	Replay Media Catcher 4.1.1
January 22, 2011	SUPER v2011.build.44 Freeware
January 22, 2011	LameXP .00 TechPreview Build #246 Freeware
January 21, 2011	XviD4PSP 6.0 Beta (20 Jan) Freeware
January 21, 2011	DAEMON Tools Pro 4.40.0312
January 21, 2011	DAEMON Tools 4.40.2 Freeware
January 21, 2011	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.10.348
January 21, 2011	Theora Converter .NET 2.5 Freeware
January 21, 2011	3D Subtitler 2.3.15 Freeware
January 21, 2011	MPEG-2 Transport Stream packet analyser 2.3.0.0 Freeware
January 21, 2011	VDownloader 3.0.752
January 21, 2011	Fraps 3.2.7
January 21, 2011	PotPlayer 1.5.26588 Beta Freeware
January 20, 2011	ffdshow Rev. 3744 (generic/x64) Freeware
January 20, 2011	Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0 Freeware
January 20, 2011	BDtoAVCHD 1.3.2 Freeware
January 20, 2011	RAD Video Tools 1.99b Freeware
January 19, 2011	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1731 Freeware
January 18, 2011	kmttg v0p7s Freeware
January 18, 2011	DVBViewer 4.6
January 18, 2011	XMedia Recode 2.3.0.4 Freeware
January 18, 2011	Bencos 2011-01-17 dev Freeware
January 18, 2011	MeGUI 0.3.5 build 1913 Freeware
January 17, 2011	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.1.2860 Beta Freeware
January 17, 2011	VideoCacheView 1.84 Freeware
January 17, 2011	BD Rebuilder 0.37.03 Beta Freeware
January 17, 2011	MKVExtractGUI-2 2.2.2.1 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 233

2011-01-16T01:24:00.000-08:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 233

16 January, 2011

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

The December 2010 US video games sales stats were compiled by NPD, and then put in a voice print activated vault, with only 5 people in the world having access to it. A team of skilled social engineers targeted one of those people, got the person to say the right words ("my voice is my passport"), and managed to get in and steal the NPD stats, leaking it to the rest of the world. Which is why I was able to write my analysis.

Game Consoles December 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

-- DVDGuy

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

Welcome to another edition of the WNR. There's quite a bit to cover this week, but I must of course do the customary promotion for the latest NPD analysis, which I posted yesterday for the US December video game sales results. The Wii did particularly well, despite being 38% down compared to last year (which was a kind of freak result, considering the sales pattern both before and after that particular month), so there's still life left in the old dog yet. And even though the Xbox 360 had its best ever month for sales, it still couldn't quite get over the Wii, although it did comfortable outperform the PS3, which might just have to settle for third place in this generation's console wars. Anyway, back to the news roundup

Starting with copyright news, the PS3 hack saga took a very non surprising turn this week as Sony finally got its lawyers involved, and filed lawsuits both the group that released the hack, fail0verflow, and geohot, the hacker that later released a custom firmware, based on the hack, that allows homebrew to be run on the PS3.

The legal documents linked make interesting reading, and Sony has approached the lawsuit from a lot of different angles, even suing for "trespass". People who are more informed in regards to the law will have, surprisingly, a more informed opinion as to the merit of the case, as well as Sony's chances of winning it. But at the heart of the issue is whether the DMCA was really violated, and the motivations of the hackers in question. Sony attempted to paint geohot as a someone trying to exploit this for financial gain (just because geohot once made some casual remarks about the need for Sony to hired someone like him if they wanted to keep their future consoles safe from hacking Sony interpreted this as a form of financial blackmailing, or something). Both hacking groups were keen to point out that their hacks were not aimed at opening up the console for piracy, but there is no denying that the hack will do exactly this, although mostly without further assistance from either geohot or fail0verflow. But I think it's a stretch for Sony to link any financial motives to the hacking these were clearly hacks encouraged by the removal of Other OS, more than anything else, and it's unlikely any of those sued is going to profit from the hacks, unless you count fame as a financial reward. Still, I think this has the makings of a epic court battle, with both sides committed to fighting for what they believe is right, and it could have seriously implications on copyright, the DMCA, DRM and hacking in general. Watch this space.

The UK music industry has just released figures showing that music sales, by unit, reached an all times high or 281.7 million songs. You would think they'd happy with this result, but they're not, and they're blaming piracy. While unit sales was up dramatically, 27% compared to just a year before, actual revenue was down, mostly due to dropping CD sales. But if there ever was a figure showing that the music industry's declining profits were nothing to do with piracy, then it was these sets of figures, despite what the BPI's (the UK's version of the RIAA) conclusions. The increase in individual unit sales shows people buying more than ever, but only in terms of single tracks. This is largely thanks to the digital revolution in music, iTunes stores and whatnot. Even without considering the ageing CD format (first demonstrated nearly 35 years ago!) and how out of place a physical medium is for music these days, the fact that most CDs are albums is also why CD sales are declining. With digital music purchases, you can buy only the music you want, as opposed to a whole album with only a couple of good songs, and you can even create your own albums, which makes those compilation CDs seems quite lame by comparison. And add to the fact that Apple, via iTunes, now get a huge chunk of the profit because the music industry was too slow to adapt to this digital revolution and set up their own online stores, this is what accounts for falling profits, not piracy. And you know what? I think record labels should just accept the fact that things aren't as good as before, and move on. They've long exploited artists, who get very little of the money from song sales by the way, and their dying business model should not be protected. Piracy has been an easy scapegoat for the music industry, that's all.

And it's an easy to accept scapegoat too. Because people are downloading pirated songs, a lot of them, but of course, nobody has actually attempted to find out the real cost of piracy. Not the ridiculous figures of "$200 billion" a year, by multiplying the number of downloads by the full retail cost of each download, but actually examining just what percentage of people would have otherwise paid for the content had the content not been available for piracy? Nobody in the industry is conducting such a study because they know the results will not be in their favour, because they know that people are buying music and movies more than ever (remember that before DVDs, hardly anybody purchased movies), and they will then have to find another convenience scapegoat to blame for their woes. It seems the entertainment industry has shifted their cross-hairs over to online storage websites such as RapidShare and MegaUpload, the new scapegoats in their war against online piracy, as it's much easier to sue companies like RapidShare/MegaUpload, than the thousands of BitTorrent indexes run by individuals without even a postal address. And again, incredible claims are being made, which basically is suggesting that sites RapidShare do nothing other than host and share illegal content, when I think (from my usage of these services anyway) most of the usages are perfectly legitimate (ie. sharing large, legal, files that otherwise would be difficult via email).

One convenient scapegoat was the so called "analog hole", in which movie studios warned of the dire consequences of not closing the loophole which allowed people to record digital content, like Blu-ray's, via analog output which have very little in terms of content protection (since it's a lot harder to deploy content protection without using some kind of digital system). This is how they scared the FCC into adding selectable output control to analog outputs, and this is why we have the stupid rule in which it's impossible for upscaled DVDs to be played over component legally. And this is also why, for the Blu-ray specifications, something called ICT was added. ICT stands for Image Constraint Token, which is simply something that the studios invented so they can block HD analog output. Due to public pressure, they put off the introduction of ICT until a later date, except that later date has just passed (January 1st, 2011), and ICT is now in effect. What this means is that for all Blu-ray players made after January 1st, they will no longer be allowed to output HD via component output the resolution is now limited to only 540p, which is basically SD resolution. For those with older Blu-ray players, they too will be affected when new Blu-ray movies carrying ICT will also only be played at limited resolutions. So it's HDMI, or no HD. And in 2013, it will be illegal for Blu-ray players to have analog outputs at all. This is fine for the vast majority, who is happily using the HDMI connection on their Blu-ray players. But there are still those with older TVs, or even those with home cinemas that employ expensive, but older, projectors that can display a perfectly great picture, but just doesn't have the required HDMI input (projectors were much slower to adopt HDMI than TVs). The Blu-ray people will say that this is all to help the transition to digital, since analog can't be supported forever. And that's a valid argument. But is it really necessary to ban analog outputs to achieve this, when as I already mentioned, the vast majority have switched over to digital already without the need for any coercion. And if the argument is that analog makes piracy more a problem I don't know a single instance of piracy over component output, simply because it's very very easy to pirated a Blu-ray movie via digital means, which also has the added bonus of 0% quality degradation. For me, this is the industry's paranoia about piracy at its worst imagining a problem that doesn't exist, and implementing a "solution" that hurts legitimate consumers more than it actually helps to prevent the problem.

For me, the industry is at its best when it is coming up with solutions to real, not imaginary, problems. DVDs were invented so people could buy movies without worrying that the quality would degrade after too many viewings, as it was the case with VHS tapes. Blu-ray was invented so people could have something to watch on their new HDTVs, and that they would get a cinematic experience at home as close as possible (in terms of visual/aural quality) to the original cinema presentation. Digital downloads and streaming, despite the industry's reluctance, also helped to solve real problems. And the industry's latest effort, which has somehow managed to earn the support of pretty much all the big names both in the movie industry and the computing industry, is something called UltraViolet. On the surface, it looks (and is) another layer of DRM, the last thing we need. But this DRM's aim is different than what has come before. Instead of trying to prevent piracy, UV attempts to solve a problem that has bothered people since the introduction of DVDs the fact that people are buying the movie that's locked to a particular format, as opposed to simply buying the movie. Well, locked legally anyway, thanks to DRM, and if people wanted to transfer their DVD movie to another non DVD device, then they could only do it illegally. The introduction of Digital Copy helped to alleviate some of the concerns, but it's a very flawed implementation. UV attempts to solve this problem by making you buy the movie, not the format, and once that movie is added to your `digital locker', you can then have access to multiple formats of the same movie, and even access to new formats as they're being introduced to the market). And you can even share your `digital locker' with up to 6 people, and across up to 12 different devices. You can read up on just how UV might work here.

But while the idea behind it is good, the problem is that we, as consumers, are still handing a lot of power over to the studios. Instead of having a physical DVD in my hands, and (albeit illegally) convert that to work on my iPhone, UV means it's the studios that now have the ultimate control. The current implementation might allow you to share with 6 friends and 12 devices, but what's to say that it will always be this generous. Or that you won't have to pay extra whenever a new format is released (say for your iPhone 6)? Or, if the studios get desperate enough one day, that they force everyone to re-pay or they will cancel access to your digital locker that may be unlikely, since they'll get sued seconds after sending out the emails demanding this "ransom", but the user agreement that you entered with them might just allow this to happen. But these worries aside, the goal behind UV seems to be a good one, and I think if it's implemented correctly, it will greatly help reduce casual piracy, and the need to purchase multiple formats of the same movie, although it's hard to see what the studios get out of letting people buy less stuff. I mean these are the same studios that make you purchase 5 different "special, limited, platinum, ultimate, definitive" editions of the *same* movie on the *same* format, every couple of month!

Everyone's favourite anti-piracy law firms, US Copyright Group, and the bunch that's suing people for downloading Batman XXX and other pornos, are joining forces. It's becoming harder for these law firms because of a little thing called jurisdiction, and so they have to form alliances with firms in other geographical areas and help sue for each other, to lower costs and ensure profit steams.

And everyone's favourite anti-piracy agency, Aiplex, is in the news again, this time over their hilariously worded threat that was emailed to TorLock, a BitTorrent indexer that is actually paying users that spot fake torrents in their index. Creating fake torrents is one of the tools in their anti-piracy toolkit, although one that doesn't really work. But Aiplex's apparent anger is hard to understand, and also their claim that it's not cool to pay people and remove torrent files for content that you don't own. So this means I can't pay people $1 every time they *don't* watch a Michael Bay film, even though I'm sure I could save billions of brain cells by doing so, and it also means that TorLock can't remove torrent files (that they don't own) when requested to do so by firms like Aiplex, right? [insert confused smiley]

In HD/3D news, the CES has been pretty much a non event for the Blu-ray format. This could be interpreted as bad news because it's no longer the cool new thing that it once was, or it could just be because it's mainstream status means, it no longer needs to be the cool new thing.

But there was one interesting new tech for Blu-ray, and one that makes the outlandish claim to improve upon the clarity of Blu-ray movies just by using a new, fancy type of HDMI cable (and Monster were not even involved!).

DarbeeVision claims to just do that, by using a special technique that creates a "drop shadow" for each frame of the Blu-ray image, which creates a kind of effect that our brains interpret as more detail. The HDMI cable part comes from the ability to embed the image processor directly into the cable, and so by connecting your Blu-ray player to your TV using the $150 cable, you can enjoy DarbeeVision's added sharpness (the current system, which uses a set top box that sits between your player and TV, costs $1,500). I've even posted some before and after images here, for those that want to see if it really works or not. Interesting concept, but I'm not sure cinephiles will appreciate fake, digitally added, details (but the Average Joe would probably love it).

And as mentioned in this section a couple of months back, Apple has finally removed VLC for iOS from iTunes. The incompatibility between open source licensing, and Apple's draconian licensing scheme (even for free software), claims another victim.

While not specifically HD news (more H.264 news), Google's decision to no longer support H.264 for HTML5 in their Chrome browser is one that will have huge implications for online HD video streaming. This definitely shifts the momentum towards Google's own WebM format or to a lesser extent, Ogg Theora, but WebM may suffer a similar fate to H.264, as disputes over patent claims could endanger the rollout of HTML5. Most video compression technologies are based on very similar principles that will almost certainly have been patented by someone at some stage, and experts feel WebM is not the open, patent/royalty worry free format that Google is promoting it as. While Microsoft has responded harshly to this decision, this move is really aimed right at Apple, which is going forward with HTML5 support for all their iDevices, but with H.264 support, since they're huge fans of the format that they own lots of patents for (Microsoft owns a lot of patents on it too). Imagine if Google made the next version of YouTube HTML5/WebM only then none of the iDevices will be able to browse the new version of YouTube, with Google's Android phones being the main beneficiary of this scenario!

And finally in gaming, Kinect will be coming to the PC officially just not any time soon. Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer hinted at Windows support for Kinect, but did not want to release and specific timelines.

Some say that Kinect won't work with PCs, because of the distance issue people sit much closer to computers than TVs, and Kinect requires a lot of space. But that's mainly because the current range of Kinect games all require leg tracking, while Microsoft has already hinted that there will be Kinect games where you can play just by sitting down, so these games might just work on Windows. And waving your hands to flick through pages and pages of a boring financial report using Kinect might just make the experience bearable!

And that's enough words for this week (fastly approaching 3000!). Have a good one.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

January 16, 2011	VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264 4.20.6.611 Beta
January 16, 2011	Burn 2.5.1 Freeware
January 16, 2011	MKVExtractGUI-2 2.2.2.0 Freeware
January 16, 2011	ProgDVB 6.51.3 Freeware
January 16, 2011	Codec Tweak Tool 4.7.0 Freeware
January 16, 2011	VidCoder 0.8.1 Freeware
January 15, 2011	Avanti 0.5.2 Freeware
January 15, 2011	XMedia Recode 2.3.0.2 Freeware
January 15, 2011	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1719 Freeware
January 15, 2011	Preferred Filter Tweaker for Windows 7 4.0 Freeware
January 15, 2011	K-Lite Codec Pack 64-Bit 4.3.0 Freeware
January 15, 2011	K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.8.0 Freeware
January 15, 2011	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.8.0 Freeware
January 15, 2011	MyFilms 5.5
January 14, 2011	MKV2AC3 1.03.01 Freeware
January 14, 2011	BDFix 1.6.2
January 14, 2011	Scenegrabber.NET 0.9.3.5 Freeware
January 14, 2011	PotPlayer 1.5.26481 Beta Freeware
January 14, 2011	ImgBurn 2.5.5.0 Freeware
January 14, 2011	Opti Drive Control 1.51
January 14, 2011	Xiph.org Open Codecs 0.85.17777 Freeware
January 13, 2011	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.1.2840 Beta Freeware
January 13, 2011	LameXP 4.00 TechPreview Build #228 Freeware
January 13, 2011	HDPVR Capture 2.9.0 Freeware
January 13, 2011	MeGUI 0.3.5 build 1908 Freeware
January 13, 2011	MovieGate 3.09
January 12, 2011	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.1.0.6
January 12, 2011	4Media Photo to Flash 1.0.0.0105
January 12, 2011	DVD-lab Pro 2.51 Update
January 12, 2011	Bencos 2011-01-11 dev Freeware
January 12, 2011	OpenSubtitles MKV Player 4.4.6.9 Freeware
January 11, 2011	Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.3 Freeware
January 11, 2011	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.7.7 Freeware
January 11, 2011	Vista Codec Package 5.9.0 Freeware
January 11, 2011	4Media YouTube HD Video Downloader for Mac 2.0.26.1215 Freeware
January 11, 2011	Xvid Codec 1.3.0 RC1 (20110111) Freeware
January 11, 2011	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.10.348 pre-release
January 11, 2011	rebox.NET 1.2.0.0 Freeware
January 11, 2011	x264 r1867 Freeware
January 10, 2011	BDtoAVCHD 1.3.1 Freeware
January 10, 2011	BurnAware Free Edition 3.1.2 Beta Freeware
January 10, 2011	TS-Doctor 1.0.83 Freeware
January 10, 2011	The FilmMachine 1.6.3 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 232

2011-01-09T02:54:00.001-08:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 232

9 January, 2011

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

The first two Lord of the Rings book falling into public domain? That would have happened this January 1st, but it didn't because changes to the copyright laws now extend copyright way beyond the period that would have provided the copyright holder substantial revenue. Copyright these days is all about having more control, and sometimes the money isn't even the main issue. All at the cost of society and culture, in the end.

A Sad New Year For Copyright

-- DVDGuy

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2. Weekly News Roundup

How has the first full week of 2011 been treating you? Good I hope. Lots of news this week, but I've found an easy solution against having to write a lot of news articles this week: ignore the CES!! The plans is to cover some of the more interesting news out of the CES here, in a very brief fashion, but to be honest, I haven't been keeping track of the developments as closely as I should because the dozen or so games I picked up during Steam's Holiday Sale aren't going to play themselves! Right?

Let's star with copyright news. I attempted to destroy the optimism gained from the new year by writing about what could have been, had the powers that be not made the the financial aspect of copyright more important than the social aspect, in my piece titled A Sad New Year For Copyright.

Sadly, this is one aspect of copyright that's not been discussed a lot recently, with the focus more on the details (DRM, court cases ). There's a very important reason why copyrights expire, and a lot of people have forgotten about it. The US Library of Congress has already warned of the risks of copyright and copyright technology getting out of control and hurting cultural preservation, this was in reference to audio recordings, but the same warning applies to every other type of media. I mean can you imagine, due to the use of DRM and lawsuits, that in 95 year's time, when the copyright for Transformers 2 or something expires, that nobody actually has a copy of the movie preserved without DRM that can be played at that time. On second thought, this may not be such a bad thing

But seriously, it's only the blatant disregard for copyright law, and the ever faster pace of technological progress and the increasing ease of information sharing (which has long since made current copyright laws outdated, even the recent changes), that is ensuring cultural preservation is not at severe risk. But how many early 20th century, but still copyrighted content, has been lost forever (something the Library of Congress says has already happened), and think of the copy protected games from the early 90's that would not be playable today (even with legacy emulators) had pirates not cracked the DRM back then? Piracy making a contribution to cultural preservation? Why not!

You may notice that I used the term 'DRM' to refer to copy protection from decade old games, when people weren't using the term DRM at all. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, and in my mind, it refers to any kind of technology in which our ability to manipulate digital media is restricted. Perhaps I'm wrong. I mention this because of the controversy surrounding Intel's announcement of a new technology called Intel Insider, designed to secure online HD video streaming. It's built into the hardware of Sandy Bridge processors, and so everyone has been referring to it as hardware DRM. Fearing the consumer backlash, Intel's Nick Knupffer took the time to post an entire blog explaining why Intel Insider is not a DRM. Nick says DRM is about things like preventing people copying the movies and distributing it online, or setting a limit on how long someone can watch a rented piece of content. Intel Insider, Knupffer says, is "an extra layer of content protection" (direct quote from his blog entry), and that Intel Insider will be even more important when things like Intel's wireless display technology, WiDi, takes off to "prevent pirates from stealing movies remotely just by snooping the airwaves". So basically, in Nick's own words, Intel Insider is designed to stop piracy, and offer hardware content protection. And that's not DRM? And in Nick's update of the blog, which came after "strong feelings in the comments" (haha), he refers to the fact that HDCP (which Intel also owns, and was cracked last year BTW) is everywhere already anyway. And that makes it better? HDCP, the DRM (sorry, "content protection") for HDMI is one of the worst things ever, and if Intel Insider is a new take on HDCP (to protect Intel's "content protection" related licensing revenue stream that must have taken a hit when HDCP was hacked), one that is built into every new CPU, then that's even worse than I had first imagined. Bring on AMD's Bulldozer then (unless it also sucks up to the entertainment industry with its own version of hardware DRM, sorry, "content protection"). But what pleased me most about this whole incident was that Intel and other companies now realises that DRM is a bad thing that they must use PR and spin to soften the negative impact it has on consumer sentiment. That's progress, I suppose.

An update on the Ubisoft DRM, sorry "content .. wait, no, this one really is DRM, I think. Anyway, Ubisoft says they have not given up completely on UbiDRM, and they may still use it for future games on a case by cases basis, that it is still effective, and that it cannot be defeated, and that its enemies are committing suicide under the walls of Ubisoft HQ.

Everyone's favourite copyright law firm is starting the new year with a bang, and now planning to sue people for downloading The Expendables. The recent setbacks suffered by the US Copyright Group, and the bad publicity they've received, seems to not have had a huge effect, as Nu Image Films, the production company behind The Expendables, sought out USCG's services. Just like how the anti-piracy lobby is now going after the revenue sources of online piracy, going after the revenue source of firms like the USCG seems to me like the best way to stop these mass lawsuits. Tie them up in paperwork, make them actually do the lawyer-y stuff that costs a lot of time and money (like proving actual damages, or even actual infringement), seems to me the best way to stop mass lawsuit law firms.

But by far the biggest copy protection related news this week was the hacking of the PS3. The fascinating story (well for a computer geek anyway) behind the hack is well worth watching the video here (especially the slide where Sony's random number generator algorithm is explained), but the implications of this hack are rather big. The leak of the master key basically destroys the PS3's ability to tell what's an authorised piece of code, and what is not, and so in other words, pirated games can now be made to appear as if it was a legally, store bought version. This is stuff Sony have nightmares about, and makes the PS3 the least protected console currently on the market, completely reversing the position in just a few months time. And not coincidentally, it all started when Sony announced they would remove the Other OS feature from old PS3 (new "Slim" PS3 never had this feature), and this is when hackers around the world decided that hacking the PS3's copy protection system would be the right thing to do. And the funniest thing is that Sony removed Other OS because they feared it would *eventually* be used for piracy, and this pre-emptive actions seems to have been the cause of opening up the console to massive piracy. Whatever limited piracy that could have been achieved with Other OS (which was all theoretical), can now be achieved without Other OS, all thanks to hackers wanting to bring back Other OS to the PS3. Awesome. And since the leak of the master key, progress on opening up the PS3 has moved along at a brisk pace, with tools for creating custom firmware already available, and at least one video demo of homebrew running on the latest, now jailbroken, firmware for the PS3. Sony issued the expected overly-optimistic evaluation of the situation ("committing suicide under the walls of Sony HQ", etc ), but they know they're beat. Solving the problem would probably require Sony to release new version of the hardware with a new key system (not just a new key), and there's always the risk they will make *all* existing games unplayable due to the need for a new key system (a risk, I'm sure, Sony wouldn't mind taking, given their track record on creating DRM related problems). Detecting modified consoles and banning them from PSN could also be on the cards.

But I actually think this will be good for the PS3. It makes the console even more versatile, and let's be honest, piracy is one of the key drivers behind hardware sales. But of course, a strong selling PS3, and mass game piracy, won't make Sony's financial situation any better (it will be worse, actually). But at least the PS3 will be popular!

In HD/3D news, Blu-ray broke through the $100m weekly sales barrier according to stats released this week. Of course, this is more an estimate, than actual sales figures, but it is still a sort of milestone for the format.

Blu-ray's growth this year has been significant, but a lot of it is really just making for DVD's losses, and not always capable of replacing all the lost sales. In fact, DVD sales are down 16% for 2010 compared to 2009, and despite Blu-ray's revenue growth of 53%, total home video revenue is down 3%. But 3% is better than the 7.6% decline in 2009 (compared to 2008), and following the trend in everything last year, "not as bad" is the new "good". Growth in digital media continues, with digital movie sales up 17%, and vide0-on-demand up 21%. And with Blu-ray, digital, and rentals, all taking away sales from DVD, it's not surprising then that DVD sales are down. The problem for the industry is whether it can create more revenue, not just make up for lost ones, but in the current economic climate, and with some many other rivals in the entertainment space (games and gadgets of all kinds), maybe a 3% decline really is good news.

And to the big news, from the CES I've been ignoring no less, is that Star Wars is coming to Blu-ray. Wait, hang on, didn't we already know this? Yes, but we now have a release date, or rather, the month in which the release will happen: September 2011! Unfortunately, if you want all the new extra features and all that, you'll have to buy the pack with the prequels in it too. They make you buy it, but you can't force you to watch it (they haven't invented the DRM to do this yet), so I guess it's alright. At $90 at Amazon at the moment (purchase links, which will help out this poor blogger financially, plus videos of the launch/launch trailer are available here), it's not the worst value in the world (not the best either).

Some of the other interesting things I've picked up from the CES news include the world's first Wireless HDMI Blu-ray player, from Philips. Now all that's needed are TVs that actually support Wireless HDMI. But if the wire-free future doesn't interest you, how about a super wide future? 21:9 TVs, using the resolution 2560×1080, seems to be one of the highlights of the CES, with both Philips and Vizio announcing new models. Why is 21:9 good I hear you ask? Well, most movies are made using the aspect ratio 2.35/2.39/2.40 to 1, which roughly equals 21:9. You'll then be able to watch these movies, like Star Wars, without those pesky black borders on the top and bottom of the screen. So what's bad about 21:9? Well, you know how you have to watch old TV shows with the black border on the left and right? Well, with 21:9 TVs, you'll have to watch all HDTV broadcasts this way as well, since these broadcasts, and many other movies, employ the 16:9 ratio, which wouldn't fit into 21:9 TVs without black borders on the sides (unless you prefer seeing a very squashed picture). So these TVs are obviously aimed at home theatre fanatics, who probably have a automatic flip system installed so they can switch between 16:9 and 21:9 TVs depending on what they watch (and it's only these people that can afford these TVs at the moment anyway).

And finally in gaming, while Sony is busy doing damage control over the PS3 hack, Microsoft have had a happier time at the CES, announcing a couple of Kinect related news of interest.

First up is Microsoft's bold claim of 8 million Kinects "sold", but it was "sold" in the same way Sony says that 4.1 million Move was "sold" it was 8 million Kinects shipped, not sold, but probably more than 5 million sold for Microsoft in the first 60 days of sales, beating the previous target which was already revised up (from the original target of 3 million). It's an impressive set of results. Microsoft also launched Avatar Kinect, which nothing to do with blue people tails, but rather, it's a way to do video chat without video. Instead of having a video of my ugly face, I can use my much prettier avatar and do a virtual chat with groups of people at a selectable virtual environment. And the Kinect camera is able to pick up not only my body motions, it can also pick up some basic facial expressions too.

And so when gamers make that angry face because their new Xbox 360's are scratching their Kinect Adventures disc, it will all be picked up by the camera. All that Kinect related jumping is probably what's causing the disc scratching, which is why it's a must to install games to the HDD, and those with 4GB Kinects do yourself (and your console) a favour and buy the 250GB accessory (or if you're braver than me, buy the cheaper unofficial variety).

And here are some leaked pics of the upcoming Nintendo 3DS, which looks exactly like the official pics release earlier in the year, except with a lot poorer photography.

That's all for now. Must rest for epic gaming session. Haven't been outside in 4 days. Oh noes, soft drink and junk food supplies almost running out. And other hardcore gamer stereotypes.

See you next week.

******************************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

January 9, 2011	D2MP 4.30 Freeware
January 9, 2011	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.1.0.4
January 9, 2011	Xvid Codec 1.3.0 RC1 (20110108) Freeware
January 8, 2011	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.7.6 Update Freeware
January 8, 2011	Smart Cutter Ps/Ts 1.3.5
January 8, 2011	AVCHDCoder 11.01.07 Freeware
January 7, 2011	ffdshow Rev. 3721 (generic/x64) Freeware
January 7, 2011	PotPlayer 1.5.26392 Freeware
January 7, 2011	Bencos 2011-01-06 dev Freeware
January 7, 2011	Subtitle Edit 3.1 Beta 2 Freeware
January 6, 2011	J. River Media Center 15.0.172
January 6, 2011	VidCoder 0.8.0 Freeware
January 6, 2011	Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.2 Freeware
January 6, 2011	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.7.6 Freeware
January 6, 2011	Vista Codec Package 5.8.9 Freeware
January 6, 2011	DAEMON Tools 4.40.1 Freeware
January 5, 2011	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2815 Beta Freeware
January 5, 2011	H264 Level Editor 1.0 Freeware
January 5, 2011	DVD PixPlay 6.18
January 5, 2011	RAD Video Tools 1.99a Freeware
January 5, 2011	DVDINFOPro 6.522
January 5, 2011	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1705 Freeware
January 5, 2011	ProgDVB 6.51.1 Freeware
January 5, 2011	Vegas Pro 10.0c
January 5, 2011	mkv2vob 2.4.9 Freeware
January 4, 2011	MediaInfo 0.7.39 Freeware
January 4, 2011	BDtoAVCHD 1.3.0 Freeware
January 4, 2011	DVD X Player Std 5.4.0.3
January 4, 2011	BD Rebuilder 0.37.01 Beta Freeware
January 4, 2011	MkvConvert 3.4 Freeware
January 4, 2011	BurnAware Free Edition 3.1.1 Freeware
January 3, 2011	Subler 0.13 Freeware
January 3, 2011	Collectorz.com Movie Collector 7.1.4
January 3, 2011	LameXP 4.00 TechPreview Build #210 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 231

2011-01-02T01:42:00.000-08:00

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DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 231

2 January, 2011

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INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

We're finally on this side of 2011, hope your new years celebrations were fun, and not embarrasing at the slightest, and did not involve people uploading compromising pictures of you to Facebook. And how many new year resolutions have you already broken?

-- DVDGuy

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2. Weekly News Roundup

Welcome to this side of 2011, and the first WNR of the new decade. It is a new decade right? Because there was no year zero and all that nonsense. As expected, not a whole lot of news this week, but still actually more than I expected. Which is good, as otherwise, I would have had to do one of those awful "2010 year in review" pieces, and I hate doing those (mainly because I can barely remember what I wrote last week, let alone the whole year). So let's not waste any time (one of my new year resolutions).

Starting with a new year in copyright news, unfortunately it's still the same old crap of government using *our* tax money to defend the business interests of an industry still relying on a old, decaying business model.

This time, it's the city of New York, which is launching a new tax payer funded anti-piracy campaign. Not only is the campaign funny, in a stupid way, it is also severely misleading, and made worse by the fact that the city is struggling to balance its budget as it is, without spending a huge chunk of it helping out movie studios which has just had a record year in terms of profits. The MPAA used their usual scare campaign with made up figures such as "40% of camcorded pirated films come from New York", a statement they made a couple of years ago (and then only days after claiming that "70%" of the same films come from Canada). This campaign uses the same scary figures, such as suggesting that if you pirate films, you're putting 900,000 jobs in NYC in jeopardy. Not buying a movie that I wasn't going to buy anyway, apparently, equals job losses. Nothing to do with austerity, cutting the city's budget, and putting people out of a job just when the economy needs people to buy things (but that's a debate for another blog, me thinks).

In any case, the fact that the MPAA can squeeze money out of a city that barely has the funds to even clean up the snowed in streets, shows just how powerful and successful their lobbying efforts, and that of their sister group, the RIAA, have been recently both groups spent more than two millions dollars on lobbying combined in the last quarter alone. But lobbying can go both ways, and it appears that the under attack Rapidshare, which was recently listed by the RIAA/MPAA as a "notorious" website for piracy, is using some of its earnings to good effect, by lobbying the US government themselves so they can be treated fairly. The cyber locker company feels that they already have a takedown policy in place, a feature that the RIAA/MPAA could easily use to bring down pirated content, and so it makes them not so different to websites like YouTube, which relies on user uploaded content, and also suffers from users uploading copyrighted content. But we all know that while the RIAA/MPAA talks big about the consequences of piracy (twenty billion jobs lost every year!), but they aren't really prepared to the hard work of actually stopping piracy online. Because going through the millions of uploads every day on RapidShare, most of them being legal, would take a lot of work indeed. Even suing is risky in that you could lose. And so it's easier to just lobby the US government, which seems incapable of taking any other position other than the one the RIAA/MPAA wants them to take. And again, this all assumes that Internet downloads are seriously hurting both industries, and not their outdated business model (and it's even debatable whether either industry are hurting at all, what with record profits and everything).

More news on mass litigation. Time Warner Cable has been accused of being a haven for pirates, after the company was sticking with an earlier agreement to only provide 10 IP to subscriber matches per month, making mass litigation against TWC customers almost impossible (if 5,000 people are sued, it would take 41.7 years to get all of their info from TWC). But why does TWC have to do the hard work for law firms whose only interest is to make money, and having others do most of the work for them? In the newspaper mass lawsuits, Righthaven has defended the fact that they were suing non-profits for copyright infringement. Moral objections aside (yes, taking money away from charities and non-profits to make lawyers rich), Righthaven argues that just because people or organisations are not making money off re-posting newspaper articles, it doesn't mean they can't be sued for it. And they've also attacked the "fair use" defence, which some defendants have used. The argument is that because the newspaper provides sharing links and email sharing features, it means the newspaper is actively encouraging sharing, and so this makes copying the articles alright. I'm actually in somewhat of an agreement with Righthaven on this issue (shock, horror), since there's a big difference between linking to an article and copying its contents (even if you do link to the original article). But there is also a big difference between a partial copying of the article, with link back to the original, and a full copy, but this is one distinction that Righthaven is not making when it is choosing its targets. In any case, I think it would be a mistake to use this fair use defence, as I don't think it will stand up in court. Instead, one should concentrate on the actual damages being caused to the newspapers in question, and perhaps even highlight the positives of copying (making the article well known, improving the authoritativeness of the source, and if a link to the original was provided, extra "foot traffic" to the newspaper's website). The reality is that newspapers aren't losing a lot of money from people copying their articles they're losing a lot of money because they can't solely rely on online advertising revenue to pay for costs, not if they make their news free. Which is why iPad and tablet subscriptions seems to be the next big thing, and my advice to them is that to concentrate less on suing potential customers, and actually try to give them attractive products they're willing to pay for. Don't abuse your online reputation for a quick buck, a short term decision that could cost you big in the long run.

Unfortunately, copyright gone mad is not a phenomenon that's only limited to the US it's happening in Europe as well. The latest has Germany declaring war on kindergartens for daring to teach children songs, without paying royalty to the music labels. They want kindergartens to pay up every time they copy the lyrics of songs or the songs themselves, in their effort to educate the next generation. So far, they're not actually preventing children from singing songs without paying royalty, but you know it's only a matter of time before they do it. Pretty soon, even humming a song in public will be considered a public performance with royalty attached. Although this sounds far fetched and ridiculously, it isn't that far from the truth when even ringtones have already been claimed by copyright groups as a public performance.

The other big news of the week was that the Windows 7 Phone DRM has already been broken. But that's the nature of DRM isn't it? If it can be used/played, then being copied isn't so different that it can't be eventually performed, even with ridiculous DRM in place. The only real way to stop copying is to stop the content being used in *any* way at all via DRM, something Sony is obviously working towards (see last week's news about the DRM on the Salt DVD).

Not much in HD/SD news, so despite promising not to do a year in review type of thing, I might just have to do it. But I'll keep it short in the interest of writer and reader.

So Blu-ray ended the year on a high, with records broken, although not really a huge advance on last year, despite aggressive pricing (can't remember the number of times I've come across where the more fully featured Blu-ray version is cheaper than the DVD version, and sometimes the Blu-ray+DVD combo version is cheaper too). In my mind, the aggressive pricing indicates that studios are now prepared to let Blu-ray become a mainstream format, as opposed to a premium format that sells side by side with cheaper DVDs. This is good for consumers I think, since we'll be able to get more (resolution, content) for less, something that may not be true if Blu-ray remained a premium product. 3D Blu-ray, on the other hand, seems to be fizzling out due to greedy studios and 3D TV manufacturers. For me, having the Avatar 3D Blu-ray on general release will help the 3D Blu-ray format take off, and make Fox a lot of money in the process, but making it a Panasonic exclusive gives 3D critics something legitimate to complain about. When 3D is already a hyped up, content scarce and gimmicky feature, the last thing it needs is content exclusivity. The whole point of 3D Blu-ray was to have a common format that allows for cross-brand compatibility, but exclusivity kills this in the most artificial way possible.

In gaming, two pieces of DRM related news, and surprisingly, it's all good (for the consumer, that is). It makes for a good end for 2010, and bodes well for 2011, I suppose.

The first piece of "good" news is that Ubisoft may have finally realised that making buyers of your games jump through hoops to play your games, may not be the best financial strategy, especially when it doesn't stop piracy, and the pirated versions offer a better experience than the legitimate version. Through recent patches, Ubisoft has removed the requirement for an always-on Internet connection for the games Assassin's Creed 2, and Splinter Cell: Conviction. Hopefully, it will be expanded to cover all their games. The DRM now only authenticates at every game start up, and does not come on during actual gaming.

In fact, while taking advantage of the Steam Holiday Sales (which is still going on as I type, with the big final day of sales coming tomorrow/in a few hours time depending on where you are), I noticed a lot of people avoiding UbiDRM games, even when they were offered for peanuts. Hopefully, Ubisoft has noticed this trend and that's why they've reversed their previous stance.

Speaking of Steam's sales, it's confirmed to me the benefits of digital copies, particularly during sales. I've taken part in sales of physical goods, games in particular, in the last month, and there are so many more problems associated with that old model compared to the digital only model. First of all, stock is limited, meaning if you don't rush in, you'll miss out. And then, delivery is an issue, especially during the holidays, and especially during the adverse weather conditions experienced around the world right now. But with Steam, they can sell unlimited copies of a game at a low price without having to worry about stock levels, and delivery is instant. Although because Steam's servers has been pounded by people downloading the dozens of games they've all purchased, downloads are not very quick at the moment, if it starts at all. That's a problem, and hopefully Steam will bring more mirrors and CDNs online, to avoid the same congestion next year (they really need to work with ISPs to come up with some kind of local mirroring system).

The second piece of good news, at least for those that are cursing Sony for removing "Other OS" from the PS3, is that due to a serious security flaw in the PS3 authentication system, hackers were able to obtain the PS3's private cryptography key, which for lay persons like myself, it means that the PS3 has been cracked, big time. The private key allows any application to be signed and accepted by the PS3 as a legitimate piece of code, meaning anything can now be run on the PS3, whether it's pirated games, or a custom version of Linux used to turn the PS3 into a more fully featured media center. The irony is that Sony removed "Other OS" to pre-empt piracy, and if was this single act that spurred the hacking community's best and brightest to completely destroy the PS3's DRM system, and thus open the system up to unrestricted piracy. The PS3 it really does do everything now.

While this will now open up the PS3 to pirated games, and turning it from one of the most secure game platforms to the least secure in a single stroke (or in this case, a single variable that should have been randomized, and not made a constant), it will also allow the continued development of custom HTPC solutions for the vastly powerful PS3 hardware, turning it into one of those must have pieces of kit, but only if you use custom software (like the original Xbox, and the subsequent XBMC development). And that, in the long run, probably helps the PS3 more than it hurts it. Maybe.

As for a roundup of 2010 for gaming? It's quite simple really. Wii dying, PS3 hacked to pieces, Xbox 360 Slim FTW, and Kinect is actually pretty good.

And that's that for the first ever issue of the WNR for 2011. The thought of having to bring out another 51 issues of WNR for this year alone makes me weep slightly inside, but a little ranting every week is good for the soul. Or something.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

January 2, 2011	Visual AVCHD Time Stamp 1.1.2
January 1, 2011	PopCorn MKV AudioConverter 1.83.4 Freeware
January 1, 2011	SMPlayer 0.6.9.3597 experimental Freeware
January 1, 2011	Subler 0.12 Freeware
January 1, 2011	BluRip 0.5.2 Freeware
January 1, 2011	madVR 0.36 Freeware
January 1, 2011	MkvConvert 3.2 Freeware
December 31, 2010	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1694 Freeware
December 31, 2010	ImTOO DPG Converter 6.0.14.1224
December 31, 2010	Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.1 Freeware
December 31, 2010	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.7.5 Freeware
December 31, 2010	Vista Codec Package 5.8.8 Freeware
December 31, 2010	WinMPG Video Convert 9.2.0
December 31, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.1.0.0
December 31, 2010	Burn 2.5 Freeware
December 30, 2010	kmttg v0p7r Freeware
December 30, 2010	ImTOO MPEG to DVD Converter 6.1.4.1224
December 30, 2010	ImTOO MKV Converter 6.0.14.1224
	More updates from www.imtoo.com...
December 30, 2010	Bencos 2010-12-29 dev Freeware
December 29, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2808 Beta Freeware
December 29, 2010	Theora Converter .NET 2.3 Freeware
December 29, 2010	Boilsoft Video Splitter for Mac 1.01
December 29, 2010	Codec Tweak Tool 4.6.2 Freeware
December 29, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 64-Bit 4.2.0 Freeware
December 29, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.7.0 Freeware
December 29, 2010	K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.7.0 Freeware
December 29, 2010	TMP - Thies Media Project 0.1.4.2 Freeware
December 28, 2010	MediaCodeSpeedEdit 1.2.0.9 Freeware
December 27, 2010	VideoCacheView 1.83 Freeware
December 26, 2010	BDFix 1.4.1

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 230

2010-12-25T23:28:00.000-08:00

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DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 230

26 December, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

Welcome to the last issues of the Digital Digest newsletter for the year 2010. Everyone at Digital Digest wishes you and your family a happy, safe and prosperous 2011!

-- DVDGuy

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2. Weekly News Roundup

Welcome to this lovely Boxing Day, St Stephen's Day, or simply day after Christmas, edition of the WNR, which is also the last of this year. As expected, the eggnog and alcohol filled week meant that the news was pretty light, so hopefully we'll get through this one and it will be relatively painless.

In copyright news, the repercussions of the Cyber Monday Homeland Security/ICE raid is still being felt, and there's more evidence to suggest that it was the RIAA/MPAA that were calling the shots in this one, and HS/ICE basically did whatever these industry groups told them to do.

The New York Times has started to investigate the websites that were closed, and at least one other website was like OnSmash.com, which only posted so called infringing material after being provided said material, via leaks, by artists and even the labels themselves. It seems that the RIAA, for some reason, resented this type of websites, and were intent to use this opportunity to have these websites closed down, even though there are plenty of higher profile targets. Perhaps these blogs bypassed the more mainstream promotional routes that RIAA members had financial interests in, or that these kind of promotional tactics are being deployed by smaller, independent labels outside of the reach of the RIAA, and they wanted to deal a blow to their competitors, but it certainly seems that the reasons had very little to do with piracy.

But in order for Homeland Security and ICE to be used in this way by the RIAA, as a private security force, there has to be some level of incompetence or corruption going on. Ars technica has done further investigation into the agent in charge of this operation, as well as the affidavits filed for the case, and incompetence, as opposed to a vast conspiracy, seems more likely. The agent in charge, Andrew T. Reynolds, does not even have 2 years worth of experience the field of IP crime, and before that, he was only a "student trainee". And the affidavits themselves were filled with phrases such as "according to the MPAA", and some of the statements in relation to the cost of piracy are almost word for word reproductions of statements made in the past by the MPAA. For example, this is what Special Agent Reynolds said in the affidavit:

"Based on my participation in the investigation, I have learned that there is a `domino effect' to online piracy Domestic industries lose approximately $25.6 billion a year in revenue to piracy, the domestic economy loses nearly 375,000 jobs either directly or indirectly related to online piracy, and American workers lose more than $16 billion in annual earnings as result of copyright infringement."

And this is what former MPAA Dan Glickman said in 2009:

"Copyright industries in the US lose $25.6 billion a year in revenue to piracy, the U.S. economy loses nearly 375,000 jobs either directly or indirectly related to the copyright industry, and American workers lose more than $16 billion in annual earnings"

It seems pretty clear the RIAA and MPAA were pulling the strings behind this investigation, and that Special Agent Reynolds' inexperience made him extremely easy to manipulate.

If it wasn't bad enough that the RIAA and MPAA now seems to control the government, subverting due process, other companies are coming out to do the same, including MasterCard. After their recent controversial stance against Wikileaks, they're on a roll by announcing that they will now help the RIAA and MPAA stop online piracy by stopping financial services for websites suspected of providing piracy. This is genius! Bypass the government and the courts entirely, and big corporations can now determine guilt and innocence, with zero appeals process unless you want to take MasterCard to civil court. And immediately, the RIAA has demanded that MasterCard take action against Megaupload. Megaupload, like any cyber locker websites, allows users to upload and share any files. Of course, some, and maybe quite a bit of the files being shared are of an infringing nature (Megaupload say they host over a billion legitimate files though), but like YouTube, Megaupload do have a takedown policy. Of course, if the RIAA were to take Megaupload to court, then the outcome will be very unpredictable, as similar cases against Rapidshare has yielded mixed results. And so when faced with uncertainty in the courts, why not just bypass it completely!

Megaupload has vowed to fight on, and questioned the circumvention of due process as an attack on democracy itself. "Will it be them (MasterCard), rather than elected governments, who decide what's right and what's wrong", asked Bonnie Lam of Megaupload. The fact is that Megaupload does have a mechanism for removing pirated content, but because it takes too much work for the RIAA/MPAA to track every illegally uploaded file, they're bypassing the system completely, the very system that they demanded via the DMCA legislation. And you can see where this will lead to eventually. Imagine an ISP that refuses to implement the RIAA/MPAA's plan for three-strikes, and then MasterCard swoops in and cuts off support for the ISP, claiming that the ISP obviously supports piracy. Or if Hollywood gets annoyed at Redbox for renting things to cheaply, why not just get MasterCard to swoop in again. And so on. It's corporate intimidation, nothing more, and all because they want to stop the phantom piracy plague, but don't want to actually do the hard work, or any work.

And it all comes down to the "$25.6 billion a year" that MPAA's Dan Glickman referred to, and Special Agent Reynolds copy/pasted into "his" affidavit. Except there isn't $25.6 billion, and there never was. It's taking the suspected number of pirated downloads, inflate this number by a few factors, and then times the full retail costs of said content, and arriving at this fantasy figure. In other words, it's saying that if piracy is stopped completely, that the group people (in the US only) who have otherwise been spending a total of $0 per year will now suddenly start to spend $25.6 billion per year, despite near 20% underemployment in the US. According to the FBI, 794,616 cars were stolen in 2009, with the average cost of the cars being at $6,505, or a combined total of $5.2 billion. I don't see the auto industry claiming this $5.2 billion as lost sales, and how ridiculously would it be if they did try.

This brings up to the list of the most pirated movies of 2010. By my own calculations, the top 10 movie torrents resulted in 92.5 million downloads, and at the price of $20 per movie, that's $1.85 billion right there. Of course, looking at the actual box office of these movies, you come to some strange conclusions. Avatar was top, as expected, but there was also room in the top 10 for the likes of Green Zone, which did poorly at the box office. Now, there can be several conclusions from this. The MPAA conclusion would be that piracy helped to reduce Green Zone's box office, and so that's $154.6 million in lost ticket sales in the US alone, despite the fact that Green Zone only recorded $95 million in *worldwide* ticket receipts. The sensible conclusion may be that a lot of those who downloaded this movie belong to the "wouldn't pay for it, but would probably watch it if it was free" category, and that some of those that downloaded, and actually liked it, may have gone on to purchase the DVD or Blu-ray. And despite having being downloaded 16 million times, Avatar was still the best selling movie of all time. In fact, Avatar did almost three times as much business as The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King back in 2003, the third most popular movie of all time. Given that movie piracy is now a lot worse now than back in 2003, and adjusting for inflation, is piracy really a $25.6 billion dollar problem in the US alone? So Avatar should have done, what, six times as much business as the Oscar winning RotK? Avatar wasn't *that* good!

Moving on to DRM, and again, Sony is making DRM headlines for the wrong reason. A new Sony DVD DRM appears to lock up DVD players to the point where it comes difficult to even eject the damn disc (so you can throw it at something in frustration). The new DRM appears on the Salt DVD. Incidentally, Salt was the 10th most downloaded movie of 2010, with 6.7 million downloads. Looks like this new DRM worked really well in stopping piracy. Now only if they can make a disc that won't play at all, on any player, then maybe the piracy problem will be solved once and for all.

In HD/3D news, the big news this week was the announced Blu-ray sales figures for the week ending 12th December, which is now officially the best week ever for Blu-ray, thanks largely to Inception. Of course, these stats are more estimates than actual sell-through numbers, but still, this all sounds very reasonable as the previous record was also set around this time, last year.

Of course, we then see a bunch of news articles about the rise of Blu-ray, and the fall of DVD. Which is true. Blu-ray sales, for the week ending 12th December, rose by 35.37%, with Blu-ray market share up nearly 54%. DVD sales, on the other hand, dropped by more than $85 millon for the same week. You see what I did there? I compared a very impressive percentage increase number for Blu-ray with an even more impressive (in a bad way) dollar figure for DVD. But when you add up the gain, and the loss, what do you get? That's right, a $60.82 million dollar *loss* in combined DVD/Blu-ray revenue. Blu-ray may be surging, but it's not surging fast enough at all, because 35% increase on $70 million is not enough to counter the 19% decrease on $442 million. Supposedly, downloads and streaming accounted for some of the DVD losses too.

And with reports that Wal-Mart was selling the Blu-ray+DVD combo version of Inception at only a single dollar over the 2-disc DVD-only version of the same movie, it's not surprising why people are choosing the Blu-ray+DVD version over the DVD-only version. As a Blu-ray early adopter, I'm pretty much only buying movies on Blu-ray these days. One reason for this is that Blu-ray offers the chance to buy the best version of the movie available, whereas DVD represent buying into an obsolete format in terms of quality. But the main reason is that price wise, there's almost nothing between DVD and Blu-ray these days, and in fact, the Blu-ray version is often cheaper. It's almost as if Blu-ray has become the "budget" choice, or at least the better value choice, and so it's not surprising to see Blu-ray sales increasing. It may come as a surprise to some in the entertainment industry, but lower price equals better sales (and less piracy as a result, I suspect).

Which brings us to gaming, and the annual Steam Holiday Sales. If publishers ever wanted prove that lower prices equals more sales equals greater revenue, then the stats provided by Valve (operators of Steam) should have publishers changing their sales tactics (except we know they won't).

Valve has figures that show when games are discounted by 75%, this lead to an amazing 1470% sales increase on average. That's 15.7 times the sales, by charging a quarter of the previous price, which equates to almost 4 times as much in raw revenue. The extra buyers are coming no doubt from people who may have otherwise pirated the game, and so this is a very successful example of how the entertainment industry can convert piracy into dollars. Pirates are still gamers, movie or music lovers, and they do have money to spend. Just not as much as the industry wants to extract from them, but something is still better than nothing, and a lot of something adds up. With A-List games such as CoD: Black Ops or StarCraft II, they benefit less from price reductions (as people are buying them regardless), but the Steam figures show that even a 10% price reduction resulted in 35% increase in sales (or 1.2 times the revenue, compared to the unreduced price), so there exists a balance between pricing and piracy. But with average or even poor games, where people don't feel justified in paying $60+, then a more aggressive price reduction could actually do wonders for revenue. People pay money for crap all the time (Slanket!), so it's about finding the right price that people are willing to pay, even knowing the game is a bit crap.

And speaking of cheap games, The Humble Indie Bundle #2 event ended, with $1.8 million dollar worth of sales (or is that donations), beating the last event quite easily. On average, people paid $7.83 for the pack, even though they could have paid a lot less if they wanted to.

And the same thing applies to movies, and music. Price all movies at $5 on Blu-ray and $3 for permanent downloads, then see online piracy eliminated without the need to manipulate any Homeland Security and ICE agents, or heavens forbid, get MasterCard to swoop in.

And on that note, thus end WNR for 2010. Hope you've had a good year, and that the next one will be much better. An early Happy New Year to everyone.

******************************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

December 26, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.6.8 Update Freeware
December 25, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2800 Beta Freeware
December 25, 2010	Fraps 3.2.6
December 25, 2010	ProgDVB 6.50.1 Freeware
December 25, 2010	Orb 3.04.0031 Freeware
December 25, 2010	MediaCoder 0.7.5.4799 Freeware
December 25, 2010	VirtualDub 1.10.0 (Experimental Build 33848) Freeware
December 24, 2010	GB-PVR 1.5.36 Beta Freeware
December 24, 2010	ImTOO MP4 Video Converter 6.0.14.1217
December 24, 2010	J. River Media Center 15.0.171
December 24, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.38.0
December 23, 2010	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1688 Freeware
December 23, 2010	4Media PS3 Video Converter 6.0.14.1217
December 23, 2010	OwnMenu 1.0.0
December 23, 2010	OwnMenu Free Edition 1.0.0 Freeware
December 23, 2010	Bencos 2010-12-22 dev Freeware
December 23, 2010	Vegas Pro 10.0b
December 22, 2010	AVS Video Converter 7.1.2.480
December 22, 2010	LoiLoScope 1.8.4
December 22, 2010	3D Subtitler 2.1.15 Freeware
December 22, 2010	4Media PPT to Video Converter Free 1.0.8.1217 Freeware
December 22, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.36.09 Beta Freeware
December 21, 2010	Freevo 1.9.2b1 Freeware
December 21, 2010	4Media PPT to Video Converter Business 1.0.8.1217
	More updates from www.mp4converter.net...
December 21, 2010	AsfBin 1.8.1.892 Freeware
December 21, 2010	IsoBuster 2.8.5
December 21, 2010	XMedia Recode 2.2.9.7 Freeware
December 21, 2010	MkvConvert 2.7 Freeware
December 20, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.9.9
December 20, 2010	XBMC media center Dharma 10.0 Freeware
December 20, 2010	Any Video Converter Free 3.17 Freeware
December 20, 2010	Quick Media Converter 4.5.0.0

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 229

2010-12-18T23:45:00.000-08:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 229

19 December, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

The WNR is a bit shorter than usual because it's the end of the year, and the news writing people are on holiday already, if not physically, then already in spirit. The news reading, summarising, and posting newsletter people appear to be feeling the same effects!

-- DVDGuy

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

Welcome to the penultimate (I told you I would find a way to use this word) WNR for 2010. It's nearly the end of the year, and as expected, news is a bit light at the moment. But news there is, and cover it we shall. I'm sure you're as busy as me around this time of the year, so let's not waste any time on silly introductions that attempts to be witty even though the author doesn't actually know what witty means. Is it the same as being ironical?

Let's start with copyright news, Warner Bros commissioned a report into online piracy a couple of months ago, and the results are in, and are somewhat surprising.

Apparently, pirates do occasionally buy stuff too. And this means that when studios are fighting pirates, they are essentially fighting their own potential customers. None of this should be too surprising to readers of this feature, but I'm sure it was a surprise to Warner Bros. And they have vowed to find out just why pirates sometimes pirate stuff, and sometimes decide to buy stuff, and if they can ever work out the formula for this, then it could really help to reduce piracy. I'm sure Warner has just commissioned another report to get to the bottom of this, but here's a (free) hint for Warner: cheap and good = sales; expensive and bad = piracy. The other interesting findings include that while pirate downloaders are usually men, it is woman that download TVs shows more often than men. And another interesting finding was that foreign subtitled/dubbed version of TV and movie downloads often become the most popular downloads only a few days after the original English release, suggesting that there may be some kind of market that is being under-served at the moment. For many foreign viewers, this is perhaps the only way, legal or otherwise, to watch the latest movies or TV shows in particular, since the alternative could be waiting months for the official version to be released. So to add to the earlier hints: worldwide simultaneous release = good; staggered release in attempt to squeeze as much money out of each market = piracy (might also add exclusivity deals to this more on this in the 3D/HD section). So basically, the conclusion seems to be that, no, studios aren't doing everything they can to stop piracy because they are not really matching the market's needs, in terms of release schedules, or pricing, or a lot of other things under their control. So instead of blaming torrent sites, and trying to sue users, maybe they should go fix their own mistakes first.

A follow-up to the story on the US Homeland Security, ICE operation that closed down 80+ websites in late November. We know now, via a story in the New York Times, that at least one of the websites closed, OnSmash.com, should not have been closed, or at the very least, should have left the decision up to that of a judge and jury. OnSmash.com provided hip-hop music and videos, publishing stuff that is often leaked to them directly from labels and artists such as Kayne West. These leaks might constitute copyright infringement in the strictest sense, but there's a good reason why the leaks came from official sources such as the copyright owners themselves and artists. All for promotional reasons, a great way to reach the fan-base in this day and age. And now this way has been closed, without explanation and without any sort of paperwork that can be obtained by the defendant for probably weeks and months. To say that those in the industry were surprised would not be a lie, but it probably also wasn't a surprise that major studios represented by the RIAA did not like the way things were working. And straight from the RIAA's lips to Homeland Security's ears, bypassing due process as much as possible in the, um, process. A little copyright infringement is sometimes a good thing. Sometimes a great thing. Remember Susan Boyle's audition video? You know, the one that now has 55 million views. Was that video from an official source, or was it pirated? Would it have served the copyright owners of Britain's Got Talent to have had this video removed, or did it serve them better to keep it up? The RIAA would have probably sued for unauthorised use of 'I Dreamed A Dream', or got their ICE buddies to knock down a few doors.

Dutch anti-piracy agency BREIN wants to get in on the website closure business too, and they've had 29 websites shut down, with visitors redirected to the BREIN website. And they can keep doing this because the minute those 29 websites were shut down, hundreds probably sprang up in their place. Hurray for perpetual war.

Meanwhile, more bad news for law firms seeking to profit from mass lawsuits, as another judge has declared that little things like jurisdiction does matter, even in embarrassing porn lawsuits. So it means that copyright trolls will now have to work a little bit harder, to determine just where the people they're suing are actually located, before threatening people with massive amounts of damages and public humiliation if they don't pay up by the close of biz tomorrow, capiche? But these little things to add up, in terms of cost, and if the EFF can keep up their small victories, eventually, it will all add up to a major victory when it no longer becomes profitable to pursue these kinds of lawsuits (and more on how you can support the EFF financially, and also get some great games for peanuts, later on).

In HD/3D news, bad news for Avatar fans that don't have Panasonic 3D TVs no Avatar for you until 2012, maybe.

A Panasonic UK spokesperson has confirmed that Panasonic's exclusive Avatar 3D Blu-ray deal actually lasts until 2012. So until then, it's paying $200 (if you're lucky on eBay) for a copy, or those willing to risk it can get it from less then legal sources. I don't condone piracy, but really, if these are the choices, then what would most people do? I just hope Fox is getting enough money from Panasonic for this deal, because by the time 2012 comes, how many people would have found another less than legal way of obtaining the 3D version of this film already, and how much would that cost the studio in terms of lost sales (assuming the 3D hype is still around by that time). My opinion, which is absolutely opposite of the actual legal position, is that if I can't buy it, then I'm free to try and obtain it in any way I wish.

And these kind of exclusivity deals destroys almost all the progress made by unifying the 3D Blu-ray standard, because it's back to the bad old days of buying hardware based on the movies that are available for the platform.

But I think something will give before 2012, because I just can't see companies like Samsung standing idly by, or Fox having the patience to wait it out until 2012 when the demand for it is there, and not when they see the 3D BDRip torrent of the movie doing great "business" on the net.

The H.264 vs WebM vs Ogg Theora vs HTML5 vs Flash war just got even more confusing, with Microsoft helping competitor Firefox by producing a H.264 add-on for the open source browser, allowing Windows 7 Firefox users to experience HTML5 H.264 videos. Of course, Microsoft never helps anyone without gaining something themselves, and as staunch supporters of H.264, this is not a surprising move. So to summarise, Firefox and Opera don't want HTML5 to adopt H.264 because it's incompatible with their open source licenses, while Apple, Microsoft love H.264 because they hold patents to it (and it is an industry standard that's widely supported already). Google remains on the fence and has been playing everyone off everyone else - even though they're the ones that came up with WebM/VP8, Chrome also natively supports H.264, so the only one that stands to gain regardless of the result is, once again, Google. Meanwhile, Adobe sits in a dark corner cursing everyone, while stabbing pins into a Steve Jobs voodoo doll. And that's what you missed last time on Glee.

And in gaming, The Humble Indie Bundle is back. The deal is simple five highly rated indie games that normally retail for $85 can be had for the princely sum of anything you want.

That's right, you decide what you want to pay for the bundle of five DRM-free games, and you can even direct part of the payment to one of Child's Play charity, the EFF or the people who are running this campaign. So if you've been porn or Far Cry mass-sued, and want to give something back to the EFF, or if you hate DRM and want your voice heard, or you want to support a very worthy charity, or just because you actually want to buy the five excellent games included, this is your chance! The top amount paid so far stands at $3141.59 at the time of writing, but the average is $7.66. The million dollar barrier has already been broken as well.

A Kinect update. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says that he has access to NPD figures that show the Kinect Xbox 360 console bundle outsold the Move PS3 console bundle by more than a 5 to 1 ratio in November. That's not surprising considering the half a billion dollars that Microsoft threw in to promote Kinect, and the subsequent hype the motion sensor device has since generated. And I'm not just talking about Oprah or Ellen Kinect appearances/give-aways, but also with independent developers "hacking" and the various impressive demo videos. The same kind of hype is just not being generated for Move. And with free DLC downloads already appearing for two of Kinect's most popular games, thanks to commercial sponsorship, and software updates that promises to make Kinect even more accurate (like finger tracking), the momentum is definitely with Kinect at the moment, even if Microsoft says no to Kinect sex games. The only thing holding it back is supply issues (just checking now, it's out of stock on both Amazon.com and Wal-mart.com, while the PS Move is in stock on both, albeit in very short supply on Amazon).

And that's pretty much it for news this week. Short and sweet. Or at least just short. See you next week.

******************************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

December 19, 2010	rebox.NET 1.1.0.0 Freeware
December 19, 2010	Plex Media Center 0.9.1.13 Freeware
December 19, 2010	Avanti 0.5.1 Freeware
December 18, 2010	Net Transport 2.96a
December 18, 2010	All My Movies 6.2 build 1307
December 18, 2010	ProgDVB 6.50 Freeware
December 17, 2010	XenonMKV Revision 38 Freeware
December 17, 2010	MediaInfo 0.7.38 Freeware
December 17, 2010	MKVcleaver 0.5.0.3 Freeware
December 17, 2010	BDFix 1.4.0
December 17, 2010	ImTOO Video Cutter 2.0.1.1201
December 17, 2010	ImTOO DAT Converter 6.0.14.1210
December 17, 2010	Any Video Converter Free 3.16 Freeware
December 17, 2010	MkvConvert 2.0 Freeware
December 17, 2010	Splash 1.6.1 Freeware
December 17, 2010	Freemake Video Converter 2.0.0 Freeware
December 17, 2010	3D Subtitler 2.1.10 Freeware
December 16, 2010	LameXP 4.00 TechPreview Build #159 Freeware
December 16, 2010	ccextractor 0.57 Freeware
December 16, 2010	ImTOO AVI to DVD Converter 6.1.4.1210
	More updates from www.imtoo.com...
December 16, 2010	Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.0 Freeware
December 16, 2010	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.7.4 Freeware
December 16, 2010	Vista Codec Package 5.8.7 Freeware
December 16, 2010	Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder 6.1
December 16, 2010	Smart Cutter Ps/Ts 1.3.4
December 15, 2010	EMDB 1.23 Freeware
December 15, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2772 Beta Freeware
December 15, 2010	AVS Video Converter 7.1.1.479
December 15, 2010	x264 r1834 Freeware
December 15, 2010	4Media PS3 Video Converter 6.0.14.1210
December 15, 2010	MP4Box 0.4.6 Rev 2485 Freeware
December 15, 2010	MKVtools 2.4.4 Freeware
December 14, 2010	Foto2Avi 3.2 Freeware
December 14, 2010	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.9.347
December 14, 2010	4Media FLV to MP4 Converter 6.0.14.1210
December 14, 2010	VOB2MPG 3.2.200 Freeware
December 14, 2010	Replay Media Catcher 4.0.19
December 14, 2010	K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.6.6 Freeware
December 14, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.6.6 Freeware
December 14, 2010	IsoBuster 2.8.4 Beta
December 13, 2010	MediaLink 2.12
December 13, 2010	Mobile Media Converter 1.7.1 Freeware
December 13, 2010	Comskip 0.80.039
December 13, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.31 Freeware
December 13, 2010	ImgBurn 2.5.4.0 Freeware
December 12, 2010	SMPlayer 0.6.9.3594 experimental Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 228

2010-12-11T23:59:00.000-08:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 228

12 December, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

It's come a little earlier than usual, but I've posted up the November US video games sales analysis, data curtesy of the NPD via leakers. The Xbox 360 was the most popular non-portable console again, and it hasn't really looked back since the "Slim" was introduced. The PS3, however, was the only console to record a year-on-year decline in the US market.

Game Consoles - November 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

-- DVDGuy

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

Another pretty quiet week, but with the NPD US November video games sales figures being leaked out in a timely fashion, I was able to get the analysis up. The big surprises were how well the Xbox 360 did (up 68% from the same time last year!), and how poorly the Wii *didn't* do (up 1% from last year, much better than the usual 30+% decline in previous months). The PS3 continues the trend in recent months of year-on-year declines, which is mostly due to the post Slim/price cut bump from last year, but it's still somewhat of a concern that the PS3 didn't even manage to sell half as many units in November as the Wii. And with Kinect being a bigger hit than Move, and with Blu-ray players being dirt cheap these days, Sony may have to re-evaluate pricing to spur sales. Speaking of Kinect, I managed to buy one this week. I haven't had much time to play with it yet (especially on the PC), but I can see the potential and the appeal (for casual gamers in particular), although the space requirement thing is kind of annoying. Let's get started with the news roundup.

In copyright news, more bad news for the US Copyright Group, as they had to drop 97% of the unnamed defendants in their "Far Cry" lawsuit.

The judge in the case ruled that due to jurisdiction reasons, most of the defendants had to be removed from the case, and so now, only 140 remain. The USCG has previously said that this wouldn't hurt their business, as they had always planned to do it this way, but with having to respect jurisdiction and having to file multiple lawsuits all over the place, the USCG's business case may have been damaged. These mass lawsuits rely on defendants paying up quickly, and so all these extra court procedures may very well be expenses that eventually make these lawsuits unprofitable.

The other famous mass copyright lawsuit law firm at the moment is Righthaven, doing the exact same thing but for posted newspaper articles. Even though they've had even less success than USCG, and have had to backtrack a few times when they sued the wrong high profile target, they're not giving up and have instead picked an even larger target this time The Drudge Report. Righthaven is suing Matt Drudge and both drudgereport.com and DrudgeReportArchives.com for using images owned by The Denver Post, the latest newspaper to join the Righthaven stables. Righthaven is demanding Matt Drudge hand over these two domain names to them so the serious copyright abuse (of using one single image owned by The Denver Post) can be stopped post haste. According to my own estimates, the drudge.com domain name is worth about $7.8m alone (just the domain name, not the content), so I guess that's how much Righthaven thinks a single image is worth. Of course, picking on such a high profile target has its own problems, and although it will get Righthaven in the news, it could also backfire if the Drudge Report mount a legal defence instead of just paying the settlement fee, which appears to be the case.

But still, $7.8m for a single image may seem like a lot even when you compare that to the insane damage amounts being handed out for MP3 downloads. The most famous MP3 download case of all, you know the one, has had some development this week too, with Jammie Thomas-Rassett's lawyers asking the damages, of $62,500 per song, to be reduced to $0 per song. Yep, I can really see the RIAA agreeing to this latest demand. But Thomas-Rassett's lawyers do have a point in saying that the RIAA has not proved the financial damage being done by their client's actions, but with the current copyright laws and statutory damages, the RIAA does not need to prove actual damages,which I think is really unfair. I can see the value of statutory and punitive damages in commercial copyright cases, in which sometimes it is difficult to proof actual damages, but when you're suing students, single mothers and other net users, I just don't think it is appropriate. And judges don't think it's appropriate either, which is why the Thomas-Rassett case is still unresolved in terms of damages. The thing is, if the RIAA is trying to use this case to scare off other downloaders, it's not exactly working is it? And I think the laws needs to be updated so that a fairer punishment can be handed out. $50 per song, for a song that costs $0.99 to download (but one must also consider uploads in cases such as these), should be more than enough. It certainly shouldn't be $62,500, and such large amounts should remain for commercial cases only, such as when a TV network broadcasts a song without permission.

The RIAA's answer to this is three-strikes, or something like it. Strategically, it makes sense to keep pursuing Thomas-Rassett, keep on getting awarded huge damages, and they too can use it as example of how the current copyright laws do not work. But the change they want will be to their own benefit, so that it would make it easier to sue and suspend downloaders, and lawmakers may just make this dream a reality via Three-Strikes. But before the music industry seeks government cooperation, they'll do a bit of ISP threatening to get them to adopt Three-Strikes "willingly", and it appears this strategy is working, at least in Ireland. Eircom has agreed to the Irish music industry's demand for Three-Strikes, and will begin to ban users from their network after spying on their downloading activities and detecting anything the music industry finds offensive. And to stop the mass exodus of users to other ISPs that don't spy on their paying customers, Eircom and the music industry has come up with some sweetners, such as unlimited music streaming and cheaper music downloads. Of course, if they really believe that music streaming and discounted music downloads can help people move on from piracy, they should have just offered this, without three-strikes, in the first place.

I've talked a lot of nonsense in the copyright section of the WNR in the last couple of years (yes, it really has been that long!). But I think if I had to sum up my opinion on web anti-piracy, it would this: be pragmatic! It's clear that the technological solutions, namely DRM, has failed. Whether it's Blu-ray releases like Avatar that come with "enhanced" anti-piracy solutions, or the latest Ubisoft game the only disruption these new DRM measures usually cause is to legitimate buyers, with pirates still easily able to pirate the content (and without the pesky annoyances brought on by DRM, and so pirates are actually getting a better product thanks to the use of DRM by publishers). One news I found interesting this week was that pirates have found a way to pirate 3D movie screenings at the cinemas, using a special lens on video cameras. If pirates are going to this length to pirate a movie, I just don't think there are any technical solution to piracy, nothing that can't be bypassed, hacked or simply ignored.

The legal solutions, like the mass lawsuits or Three-Strikes either have no intention in stopping piracy (only to monetize it), or will only push people towards piracy solutions that cannot be tracked, and that means they don't work either. So why not be pragmatic, and seek a real solution, instead of band-aids or measures that will only give the industry a false sense of security, and at the same time, cause massive collateral damage in terms of consumer and civil rights.

But the industry is obsessed with doing things the wrong way, and with all the powers granted to them by governments, they are getting more and more belligerent. The MPAA's latest demand is for Universities to crack down on students downloading movies, or face the possibility of losing federal funding, following the RIAA's footsteps in making similar threats. But they could only make this threat if they can back up their threat, and unfortunately, they can, via the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. So the RIAA/MPAA have gone to a lot of trouble, a lot of money spent on lobbying, to get the act passed, and this act forces Universities to divert funding away from education, and towards deploying anti-piracy tech, and what has it all achieved? This is what I mean about being pragmatic, because I don't think this "solution" solves any problems. College students downloading movies may be stopped (or maybe they'll just use their own personal Internet accounts to do so), but how much money has that made for the RIAA/MPAA? Will these students, many of whom have trouble paying their tuition fees, all suddenly stop downloading pirated content and start paying for everything? And all of this "result" after millions and millions of dollars, was it worth it? And is it really worth it to endanger the education of tomorrow's workforce so that the RIAA/MPAA can chalk up another "theoretical" victory, which gains them little, if any, actual benefit? It is really worth it?

And to round off the copyright news, LimeWire is shutting down again, but this time, it's the legal part of LimeWire. It was originally set up to appease the music industry and to transition LimeWire to a legal service, but it looks like it failed to achieve either of its objectives. The service will shut on at the end of the year.

In HD/3D news, not much going on really. I suppose I should cover the fact that Blu-ray has just had its best Black Friday sales yet.

$83 million dollars worth of Blu-ray movies were purchased during the Black Friday sales week. This in itself is not a record, and "only" represented a 20% increase on last year's Black Friday results, but what was more impressive was the market share, which traditionally favours DVDs during this period (due to aggressive discounting). This year, Blu-ray's market share was 16.82%, an improvement on last year's 12.33%. It seems that the aggressive Blu-ray pricing has had an effect.

The next few weeks will generally favour Blu-ray as well, so while Blu-ray growth has slowed a bit, it is at least growing, which cannot be said of DVDs. The economy, Blu-ray, and downloads are all taking market share away from DVDs, so its decline isn't too surprising either.

And on a personal note, the Blu-ray's I picked up during Amazon's Black Friday sales arrived this week. This is why I prefer to shop from Amazon: not only did they upgrade shipping from standard to express at no charge (the item arrived from the US to Australia in only 4 days, and one of those days was a customs delay), they didn't even make a fuss about it I only found on when they sent me the "dispatched" email with the shipping details and tracking option, which is normally not available with standard shipping. This contrasts to an experience I had with an Australian online store this week. I purchased Kinect Sports from Big W as part of their online sales at the end of November. My credit card charged immediately. But having not heard anything about the order, and with their online order tracking system down, I emailed customer service. I only received a response a day later, and was told that in fact, my order had not gone through due to an IT problem, and that instead of resolving this and sending out my item, they had simply cancelled it. My credit card has yet to be refunded! And the worst part is that I could have picked this title up for even cheaper just a few days after my original order, but I chose to stick with Big W since I thought, wrongly, that my order had already been processed and dispatched. Was I angry? Well, put it this way, it's unlikely that I would shop at Big W ever again, online or in store. Not if I have a choice.

Not much to say in gaming, nothing that I haven't already covered in the NPD analysis anyway, so I'll skip it for this edition. Although I will add that the NPD analysis focuses on US sales only, and the global picture, especially in Japan, is actually very different, with the PS3 outperforming the Xbox 360 and the Wii quite consistently. Global sales wise, the PS3 has nearly caught up, or has already caught up, to Xbox 360 sales, whereas in the US, the Xbox 360 still has a 1.6:1 advantage over the PS3. But if Kinect is the next big thing, or really just the next Wii, then even global sales may start to reflect the Xbox 360 dominance, because finally, we have a console that can do almost any kind of games from the hard core, to the casual. The only thing it doesn't do is Blu-ray, but with standalones so cheap these days, the PS3's advantage in this area is diminishing, especially since multi-platform games aren't really taking advantage of the space offered by Blu-ray, and the PS3 version is often worse than the Xbox 360 version, due to the more difficult time devs have with PS3 development.

And this "PS3 is harder to develop for" isn't just a myth, or can be attributed to lazy programmers. I've heard this personally, and constantly, from people working in the industry, and it seems the main issue is the whole hardware architecture of the PS3, which will always makes it more difficult to develop for than the Xbox 360 even doing the same things on the PS3 takes a lot longer than on the Xbox 360, and so while developers may be able to do more with the PS3, time constraints means that they end up doing less (or just the minimum required to get the game running at the desired FPS). It seems Microsoft, being primarily a software company, did a lot of work to ensure the Xbox 360 was easier to programme for, while Sony, being primarily a hardware company, made a superior piece of kit. So it's no surprise, really.

Okay, no more writing. Head hurt. Want Fallout gaming. NOW! See you next week.

******************************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

December 12, 2010	ProgDVB 6.49.9 Freeware
December 12, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.30 Freeware
December 11, 2010	Freemake Video Converter 1.3.0 Freeware
December 11, 2010	XMedia Recode 2.2.9.3 Freeware
December 11, 2010	WinAVI Video Converter 11.0
December 11, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.37.1383
December 10, 2010	XviD4PSP 6.0 Beta (10 Dec) Freeware
December 10, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2758 Beta Freeware
December 10, 2010	RAD Video Tools 1.9z Freeware
December 10, 2010	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1668 Freeware
December 10, 2010	MLC Lossless Codec 0.9 Freeware
December 10, 2010	J. River Media Center 15.0.163
December 10, 2010	TS-Doctor 1.0.75 Freeware
December 10, 2010	ccextractor 0.56 Freeware
December 10, 2010	3D Subtitler 2.0.02 Freeware
December 9, 2010	SolveigMM WMP Trimmer Plugin 2.0.1011.29
December 9, 2010	SolveigMM HyperCam 3.1.1012.3
December 9, 2010	VSO Blu-ray to DVD Converter 1.0.0.3
December 9, 2010	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.9.347 pre-release
December 9, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.36.06 Beta Freeware
December 9, 2010	VideoCacheView 1.82 Freeware
December 8, 2010	Smart Cutter Ps/Ts 1.3.3
December 8, 2010	x264 r1820 Freeware
December 8, 2010	ChrisTV Professional 5.61
December 8, 2010	ChrisTV Standard 5.61
December 8, 2010	ChrisTV Lite 5.61 Freeware
December 7, 2010	MediaLink 2.11
December 7, 2010	Photodex ProShow Producer 4.51.3003
December 7, 2010	Photodex ProShow Gold 4.51.3003
December 7, 2010	Miro 3.5.1 Freeware
December 7, 2010	ImgBurn 2.5.3.0 Freeware
December 6, 2010	LameXP 4.00 TechPreview Build #125 Freeware
December 6, 2010	BDtoAVCHD 1.2.3 Freeware
December 6, 2010	MediaCoder 0.7.5 Build 4797 Freeware
December 5, 2010	MkvConvert 1.5 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 227

2010-12-04T23:45:00.000-08:00

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DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 227

5 December, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

Is the 3D Blu-ray version of Avatar really worth $400? And if the general release version if two years away, will people, who have never thought about it, resort to piracy to get their Avatar 3D fix on their new expensive, but non Panasonic, 3D TVs? It's exactly this sort of thing that makes the industry complicit in terms of promoting piracy, in my opinion.

-- DVDGuy

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

Damn it. November went by and I didn't even get to mention that it was the 'penultimate' month of 2010. I love to use the word 'penultimate', and so you can imagine how disappointed I am. There's a surprising amount of news this week. Surprising because I still managed to play something like 25 hours of Fallout New Vegas, so I don't know how I managed to find the will to quit the game and search for news. So let's get started

with Copyright news. The cracks are starting to appear in the US Copyright Group's attempt to monetize anti-piracy, and they're bringing out the kitchen sink to stop anyone getting into their way.

Document lawyer Graham Syfert is just the latest to try and stop the USCG mass lawsuits, and he did it by producing and selling self-help documents and selling them to those that have been sued. These documents can be used to keep the USCG busy, in the hope that they will eventually drop the case because it's just not worth the trouble. The documents can be purchased for as little as $9.95, but according to the USCG, it's costing them thousands. Which is why the USCG has just sued Syfert. Apparently, it's only okay for the USCG to make money off anti-piracy, and anyone getting in their way is a bad person. Syfert, being a lawyer himself, has fired back claiming that the USCG's actions are "completely insane". And if that wasn't bad enough for the USCG, they are now facing a class action lawsuit filed by one of the defendants of their 'Far Cry' case. The class action alleges "fraud, extortion and abuse" on the part of the USCG. I've always been told that the US is a particularly litigious country, and so I guess the USCG should have expected something like this to happen. And it's interesting to note, that apart from some porn lawsuits, there aren't too many other law firms taking up the anti-piracy settlement business, at least not many that are high profile. Perhaps they're all waiting around to see what becomes of USCG's business model, whether it is workable at all. Which is more reason to hope that USCG fails completely to monetize, so it puts an end to this sort of thing. And hopefully with the porn lawsuits, someone will step up and also claim "fraud, extortion and abuse", particularly the extortion bit, because threatening to make public one's sexual habits does seem a bit extortionate.

The fallout from the recent Homeland Security domain seizures, and the threat looming from the controversial Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), it seems that BitTorrent websites are taking pre-emptive action to protect themselves. Which is why this week, private BitTorrent tracker Demonoid has decided to move away from its .com roots, and instead move to .me, to counter the threat of having their domain seized by US authorities (who have jurisdiction over .com domain names, I suppose). Several private DNS systems have also been set up recently, in case COICA becomes law and thus giving the US government the ability to tamper with the Internet's domain name system. This fracture into a public (both censored and uncensored) and private Internet is exactly what academics and engineers have warned about when they first heard about COICA. And it also again shows that even with the risk of catastrophic damage to the Internet as we know it, the actual effect of COICA in stopping piracy is negligible, because people can simply switch their DNS to an offshore one, and continue to access all the websites the US government doesn't want you to look at.

Viacom is eager to get back to court so they can lose again to Google/YouTube, as they filed their appeal against the June decision which say their copyright lawsuit thrown out of court. More money wasted instead of pursuing innovation, but I guess the lawyers will be happy. In totally unrelated news, Google is beefing up its anti-piracy credentials by buying DRM firm Widevine, as well as implementing several features on their websites that will make it about 2.3% harder to find pirated stuff on the Internet. The first major change is to remove piracy related keywords, such as "torrent", from auto-complete suggestions (so that when you search for "Megamind", the phrase "Megamind torrent" isn't a recommended search term, and only maybe shows up if you type the first few letters of "torrent"). This adds keywords such as "torrent", or maybe even "free download", to the list of naughty words such as "lesbian" that Google keeps out of the recommendation list. I'm sure this will make the entertainment industry slightly happier, although it makes absolutely no difference to those actually searching for torrents (because, what, if Google doesn't suggest it, people are going to stop searching for it?). I'm sure the entertainment industry will be a lot happier if Google actually blocked displaying results for bad keywords, but that would be censorship of the worst kind and would go against everything democracy stands for, which just makes the entertainment industry want it even more. And the idea that "torrent" automatically means piracy should be challenged as well, and unless Google's system is clever enough to distinguish between legal and illegal torrents, then searches like "Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Torrent" will be blocked too from auto-complete recommendations.

And I guess people searching for what about keywords such as "rapidshare"? There are still lots of people searching for "Windows 7 activated rapidshare" (it's the third post popular recommendation), should that be blocked too? I mention Rapidshare because I wanted to segue into the news about Rapidshare being ordered by a German court to pay eBook publishers a hefty 150,000 Euros fine for not successfully blocking out pirated eBooks from being uploaded and downloaded, as ordered by the court back in February. I guess it's only fair that Rapidshare do make an effort to block these downloads after a court order and everything, and if every publisher wanted to get their content blocked, then they should also go an get a court order. Of course, filtering is never really foolproof, and so the court should take this into account too. After all, it's the users of Rapidshare that's committing the real crime here, and if Rapidshare did their best to prevent it (even if their best does not match up to the content owner's expectations), then they should not be found guilty. This is basically why Viacom lost its lawsuit against YouTube.

And in this week's "Oh no, what has Sony done now" section, Sony's latest SNAFU is to demand music that it doesn't own to be removed, despite the fact that it was uploaded by an artist belong to a competing studio. This "innocent mistake", or so Sony claims, even went as far as Sony lawyers writing to Mediafire and getting them to remove the uploaded home demos, although they did eventually write back to say "never mind". Now this is but one, fairly high profile, mistake. How many other lower profile mistakes have been made by Sony, and other labels and studios in their anti-piracy hunt? And should they not double check that they actually have the legal right to sent off legal threats? But I guess if banks can foreclose houses they don't even own, anything could happen I suppose.

And Ubisoft is back with another form of annoying DRM, but this time I can see the funny side of it. Those that pirated Ubisoft's new Michael Jackson game on the DS will find that all of the music have been replaced with annoying vuvuzelas sounds.

In HD/3D news, regular readers of my Blu-ray sales analysis (which also includes DVD sales figures) will have noted the year on year decline of DVD sales, which is pretty much the norm for most weeks.

And this drop in DVD sales has many in the industry worried, and many are blaming downloads and streaming content, the legal kind, for it. I guess the term "blame" is perhaps the wrong word to use, because this shift was always coming. Music is mostly sold via digital means these days, and with faster Internet connections and more generous bandwidth quotas, the same will be true of movies. For really high quality stuff, stuff that can't be downloaded easily, there's Blu-ray (which has recorded year on year growth). For everything else, downloads and streaming should suffice. And it will really take off once pricing because a bit more reasonable. In the article, there's a guy from the BBC that says that "long tail" is where the future is. And I think I touched on this in my TV Networks for the 21st Century blog post, basically the future may be one where people pay very little per download, but they download a lot more and from a vast library of titles where every TV show, programme, episode, is available to download 24/7 instantly. This is very much a "long tail" approach, as opposed to the more traditional approach where content owners rely on people downloading the latest and greatest in great numbers, while limiting access to their entire catalogue (mainly due to technical reasons, not exactly intentional). And the reason why DVD/Blu-ray has been a huge success (despite what Hollywood wants you to believe the home video sell-through market basically didn't exist before DVDs), that's to allow people to access their old favourites. And many of Blu-ray's biggest hits have been classics, not new releases like all the Disney animated classics, Sound of Music recently, classic TV shows these all have done just as well, if not better combined, than a single new release. And with digital downloads and streaming, the access could be even greater, especially if delivered in an on-demand fashion. There aren't any technical hurdles any more to achieving this (at least for SD content), so the only reason why we're not able to select and watch any episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or Bewitched is more to do with other reasons (irrational fear of unauthorised copying, and also of fear of losing a grip on their existing, outdated, business model).

Also, I've been thinking about the 3D Blu-ray of Avatar and how it's selling for $400 or more. With no signs of a general release (director James Cameron's comments about "2 more years" is worrying), I wonder if this exclusive deal may actually do more damage than good. I'm sure Panasonic paid a lot of money for the exclusivity, but I think this move is actually driving people to consider piracy as an alternative to paying $400 for a single movie, and how will this hurt sales when it becomes available via general release? People have purchased 3D TVs in anticipation of Avatar really, and if the general release is not just around the corner, then expect 3D Blu-ray Avatar to be the most pirated Blu-ray movie of all time (even if it takes about a week to download).

And finally in gaming, I have bit the bullet and ordered Kinect. I've always wanted one to see what it can do, especially when the hardcore games arrive next year (and they will arrive), but in the end, it was all the crazy PC hacks that have been posted in the last couple of weeks. It makes me, as a software developer, want to get my hands on one as quickly as possible just to see what kind of things I can make Kinect do.

But it might be a while before my order arrives, because according to my local (as in Australia) wholesale sources, stock is a huge issue for Kinect at the moment. And a quick search online reveals pretty much the same thing, with most online stores (again, locally) out of stock of the sensor + Kinect adventures pack. This leaves buying Kinect as part of a new Xbox 360 bundle the only option for many. It is also sold out on Amazon.com as I type, with 4.5 stars average rating after 320+ reviews. Microsoft has revealed that 2.5 million Kinect units have been sold to customers in the first 25 days of release, which could have been even better had stock been more plentiful. Sony later countered with their own "sales" figures of 4.1 million since release (a bit more than a full month longer than Kinect), but it was later revealed that this figure is the number of units shipped to retailers, not the actual number sold to customers (cue thousands of web editors updating articles at the same time). Although the demand for the Move means the shipped to retailer and sold to customers number may not be that far apart, some of the 4.1 million units may be reserved (ie. stock held) for yet to commence December sales at the time of Sony's sales data, and so in any case, the two numbers cannot be compared without more information.

Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities has revealed, based on access to NPD data, that his predicted "to customers" number for Move is about 2.5 million, the same as Kinect, although over more than double the time frame (since late September for Move, 25 days for Kinect). And of course, every Move controller sold is counted as a single unit, even if purchased by the same household for multiplayer (whereas Kinect has built in 2 player support). Without knowing the pairing rate of Move controllers to PS3s, there's no real way to compare to Kinect sales numbers. If the pairing rate is 1.5 Move controllers per PS3, for example, and taking into account that the Move has been released for twice as long as Kinect, then even taking the 4.1 million as total sold, Kinect is already twice 1.8 times more popular than Move. If the pairing rate was 2, then Kinect is 2.4 times more popular. If taking Pachter's estimates of 2.5 million sold through, then Kinect is 3 or 4 times more popular if the pairing rate is 1.5 or 2. If my maths is right. Which it usually isn't.

And some news outlets are incorrectly stating that the Sony numbers do not include PS Move sales not part of the standalone bundle (with PS Eye) or console bundles. The numbers, from what I can gather, do include it, it just doesn't include separate PS Eye and Navigation controller sales (the Navigation add-on is useless without the Move wand, and you can almost say the same thing about the PS Eye these days, given how poorly it was selling before Move arrived).

It's all quite confusing really, and I think Sony should have just kept their mouth shut unless they really did outsell the Kinect, which looks unlikely at this stage. The same wholesale source I mentioned earlier showed that the Move bundle still had plenty of stock, and more online stores had stock of them on my last search.

Okay, enough fanboi baiting for this week. Have a good one.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

December 5, 2010	MkvConvert 1.4 Freeware
December 5, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.29 Freeware
December 5, 2010	Collectorz.com Movie Collector For Mac OS X 3.4.5
December 5, 2010	Submerge 1.9.4
December 5, 2010	ProgDVB 6.49.8 Freeware
December 4, 2010	MediaCoder 0.7.5 Build 4796 Freeware
December 4, 2010	ReClock DirectShow Filter 1.8.7.3 Freeware
December 4, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.34.1372
December 3, 2010	VideoStudio X3 SP2
December 3, 2010	Fraps 3.2.5
December 3, 2010	XBMC media center Dharma 10.0 RC2 Freeware
December 3, 2010	BluffTitler 8.1.0.3
December 3, 2010	3D Subtitler 1.0.06 Freeware
December 3, 2010	EncodeHD 1.2.224.0 Freeware
December 3, 2010	MPEG-VCR October 2010 Update
December 3, 2010	VDownloader 3.0.733
December 3, 2010	rebox.NET 1.0.0.0 Freeware
December 3, 2010	Cyberlink PowerDVD 10.0.2325
December 3, 2010	MC-TVConverter 1.4.1 Freeware
December 2, 2010	Miro 3.5.1 RC1 Freeware
December 2, 2010	AsfBin 1.8.1 Freeware
December 2, 2010	AVStoDVD 2.3.3 Freeware
December 2, 2010	Avanti 0.5.0 Freeware
December 1, 2010	EMDB 1.22 Freeware
December 1, 2010	doubleTwist 3.0 Freeware
December 1, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2747 Beta Freeware
December 1, 2010	XviD4PSP 6.0 Beta (30 Nov) Freeware
December 1, 2010	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.8.344 pre-release
December 1, 2010	All My Movies 6.1 build 1305
December 1, 2010	WinMPG Video Convert 9.1.9
November 30, 2010	VidCoder 0.7.2 Freeware
November 30, 2010	DVDAuthorGUI 1.027 Freeware
November 30, 2010	J. River Media Center 15.0.159
November 30, 2010	BSplayer 2.57 Freeware
November 30, 2010	SolveigMM AVI Trimmer 2.0.1011.29 Beta Freeware
November 30, 2010	DVD slideshow GUI 0.9.4.0 Freeware
November 30, 2010	MediaPortal 1.1.2 Freeware
November 29, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.9.8
November 29, 2010	Mp3tag 2.47b Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 226

2010-11-28T01:12:00.000-08:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 226

28 November, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

You can still save money on selected Blu-ray titles as part of Amazon's Black Friday deals (the Mad Men Blu-ray's have gone up in price, unfortunately, buy only by a few dollars). I picked up quite a few bargains, including some discs that I vowed never ever to buy out of principle (more on that in the WNR)!

Amazon Black Friday Blu-ray Sales

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

Another week, another WNR. I know it's easy to get cynical about the Black Friday sales in the US (particularly if, you're like me, not actually located in the US), just like it may be easy to get caught up in the hype, but if you're do your research, there are potentially a lot of bargains to pick up without leaving the comfort of your home. Since Blu-ray is a major topic of this website, I've posted some of the best Amazon Black Friday Blu-ray deals on this page. Most of the discounts are still available, and there will be more on Monday as well, so it's a good time to stock up on some Blu-ray movies. The prices are so good that they're almost HD DVD level! I've purchase a dozen of so movies myself as part of this sale, as there are some really good bargains around for the movies that I had planned to buy anyway (and that's the the trap, is that you end up buying things you didn't really want or need just because they were cheap). More on this in the HD/Blu-ray section of this WNR, including one confession about how I compromised my principles a bit!

I continue to play through Fallout New Vegas, encountering another quite annoying glitch during the week. This one involved the companion Veronica, and how she become frozen in one spot after a certain mission. And this leads me to recommend one most excellent resource for Fallout games, The Value. It is a Wikia for all the Fallout games, and it gives precious advice on how to overcome glitches. And this is also why I prefer playing Fallout on the PC, because you get access to the console, and this allows you to fix the most stubborn glitches. In any case, I solve the Veronica glitch after reading a tip on The Vault. The glitches in this game almost ruin the game, but it's actually quite satisfying when you do find a solution or workaround, and it has become part of the Fallout/Bethesda experience really.

Not a huge amount of news by any standard, but still enough to do some ranting, possibly between the 1800 and 2400 word mark, by my best guestimate. So let's get started.

In copyright news, news broke not too long ago that The Pirate Bay founders have lost their appeal in the Swedish courts. This means that, following the original verdict, the founders now face a hefty fine and prison time of up to 10 month.

Only three of the original four defendants were part of this trial, the other missed out due to illness, but will be certain to face the exact same result. Despite jail time being handed out, the likes of the MPAA are still not satisfied at the result, claiming that the $6.5 million dollars of damages isn't anywhere near the $17 million they had wanted. Talk about being greedy! The case will now most likely go to the highest court in Sweden, even if the prosecutors seem to think this case won't go that far. I can't be bothered to dig up the previous edition of the WNR where I said that this case won't be decided until it is examined by the highest court in the country, and I think I also mentioned that I don't hold much hope that any appeal would yield satisfactory results for the TPB. The cards were stacked against them from the start.

The copyright news this week doesn't really get much better unfortunately, but there was at least one bright spot when there was at least a sign of common sense on Capitol Hill this week, when US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) torpedoed efforts to enact the controversial Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) into law. He has placed a hold on it and it won't be heard before the senate until next year. Unfortunately, I can only see this as a temporary delay, because with so much support for this ridiculous act, it will be made into law and we'll all have to suffer the consequences. Most support it because they don't know any better, or have received enough incentive to support it without asking serious questions. And most know there's no political points being earned by going against the entertainment industry in the US. And that's partly our fault too, for not pressuring out representatives in government in doing the right thing. But the thing is, unless you're someone who reads this or similar blogs and websites regularly, you won't really be aware of the issues, or understand (or care) about them, and it then boils down to an issue of whether people should or shouldn't "steal" (a dumbed down talking point that the entertainment industry has been pushing), and most people wouldn't support stealing. Except we know that copying and stealing are two different things entirely, and that even if it is possible to stop piracy (it isn't), there are certain things that are far more sacred than protecting the dying business model of the entertainment industry. Things like our right to privacy. And freedom of speech. And due process, which systems like 'Three Strikes' attempt to short-circuit by assuming guilt and denying people their right of appeal (or to even address the matter in a court of law, like they're entitled to). And this goes back to what I said a couple of WNRs ago, that we must do more to protect our rights and treat this more than just a matter of being able to "downloading movies and games and stuff", something that the copyright lobby and their supporters has tried to reduce the arguments to. This is about protecting our democratic rights, which politicians these days are too eager to sacrifice in the name of "protecting" us (whether it's terrorism, or the perceived and possibly imaginary threat to the economy, due to piracy).

And so we move on to the news this week that Homeland Security closed down another 80 websites suspected of providing pirated content. The only positive is that due process was followed, that warrants were obtained via the court, but it doesn't really matter if the process itself is flawed. My biggest problem with this is that I have no idea if any of the websites/domains seized were really illegal, and who determined their status. I don't trust most judges' level of technical understanding to pass judgement on technical issues such as this, and perhaps when faced with such overwhelming force (Justice Department, Homeland Security, ICE), and some scaremongering about the consequences of piracy (billions of jobs will be lost!), most will just go along with whatever is in the warrant request. And if one of the 80 websites was truly innocent, what's the process of appeal, and what kind of compensation would be due if the website was deemed by a court of law as not guilty, compensation for the financial and emotional damages caused by the temporary closure of the website. I mean, this is not like going after drug dealers or counterfeit drugs, there are a lot of complicated issues involved in determining whether a website is guilty or not of copyright infringement, issues that must be addressed in court before any punitive actions can be handed out. And what if the domain really did host illegal stuff, but it was uploaded unknowingly by third parties, or as part of a user-generated section on the website is if fair that the entire domain is taken offline? It would be like shutting down blogger.com because somebody created an account on there to share pirated MP3s. This scenario could be avoided via a DMCA takedown notice, but these seizures bypass the very laws that were created to avoid situations like this. And this is why COICA is so controversial, in that it gives the US government even greater power to do all of this and more, and on a much larger scale as well, potentially killing off tens of thousands of websites in one fell swoop, and many by "collateral damage". And this is why anyone who knows and cares about the Internet ought to be against COICA, and many prominent companies and individuals have already spoken out, but all will be silenced by the constant chattering of lobbyists into the ears of those that can decide the fate of COICA. Senator Wyden excepted.

And so the next step would be to even make talking about piracy illegal, which is what the RIAA attempted to do this week, and caused some collateral damage of their own in the process. PCMag.com posted an article after LimeWire was shut down, examining the possible alternatives that are still left. This is a valid discussion, because it points to the fact that even though it took years and millions of dollars to bring down LimeWire, the next LimeWire could pop up in a matter of weeks or could already exist, and thus making the whole process an expensive, and pointless, exercise. And for this, the RIAA and its cohorts sent a letter to PCMag.com's CEO, attacking the website for daring to suggest alternatives and supporting and encouraging piracy in the process. It then attacked PCMag for simply referring to another article, published by TorrentFreak, regarding LimeWire being resurrected. The problem is that PCMag didn't write that article, it was PC World, by facts and accuracy does not matter when one is acting the bully like the RIAA and Co. are. PCMag are standing firm by their journalistic principles, and refuse to be silenced and used as a scapegoat in the RIAA's attempt to blame someone, anyone, for the piracy problem. Anyone except for themselves for sticking with a dying business model, even when alternatives and opportunities were presented, opportunities that were eventually taken by the likes of Apple with iTunes. The only bit of innovation the RIAA and its members have come up with recently has been new ways to sue and intimidate those perceived to be their enemies (the Internet and anyone who uses the Internet), and of course the whole failed DRM experiment.

And DRM has been in the news this week too, but in regards to the use of it in the gaming industry. Gamasutra, one of the most respected gaming industry website on the Internet, has had one of its bloggers write an interesting article examining the failure of DRM, and how illegal copying can be prevented. The conclusion seems to be one that I've come to as well, in that the solution is to add value to the gaming experience, not to take it away via horrible DRM. Value adding explains the success of Steam, and even though it does use DRM, it is pretty weak stuff, and in fact probably better than buying off the shelve due to the lack of need of a DVD check. The best DRM should prevent casual copying, but should otherwise be invisible to the end user, and if it forces gamers to connect to an online service for authentication, free value added services should be given as compensation (achievements, community, social features ). But even the best, or worst (as in draconian), DRM will not prevent copying by those that really want to copy it, and groups with the skill to hack away, as Ubisoft's DRM experiment showed recently, and so really, there's no point to DRM at all. And this is a point shared by at least some game developers, including the developer of The Witcher series, and operators of the classic, DRM-free, gaming website GOG.com. In fact, their CEO and co-founder, Marcin Iwinski, goes on to say that DRM treats customers like criminals. Iwinski believes there's no need to debate whether their upcoming game, The Witcher 2, should use DRM or not, simply because he believes DRM doesn't work. And this is why The Witcher 2 will be released DRM-free. Iwinski also criticized the way DRM adds restrictions that the pirated versions are free from, calling it "totally stupid". He also attacks online based protection, saying that it isn't fair to people who want to play games when they're away from a reliable Internet connection. And it's hard to argue against any of these points really. The industry, when it relies on DRM, is basically trying to sell something that's not as good as the pirated version even when you don't consider the price, and then getting mad when it's not selling well. I mean this is an industry that isn't even bothering to print manuals any more, and yet it expects us to jump through hoops just to play a badly bugged game that it rushed through testing. But luckily, there are still the smarter companies that are doing more innovative things to stop piracy, things like bundling physical collector's items that can't be pirated, building immersive online experiences and communities, being innovative with pricing, and either not using DRM or at least not overdoing it. And then you have companies like Ubisoft.

Moving on from the ranting to happier grounds, as mentioned before, I did take part in the Black Friday sales on Amazon, trying to take advantage of the historically favourable AUD/USD exchange rates (not as favourable to be honest this week).

And yes, I did completely compromise my principles on an issue I've ranted about a lot right here. That's right, I purchased the theatrical Blu-ray version of The Lord of the Rings movies, despite bitching about it for weeks back when it was first released. My rant then was about how the trilogy boxset should have included the extended edition, as opposed to the theatrical edition, and should have at least featured some new extra features and put them on Blu-ray at least even if they weren't HD (the extra features are actually on DVDs, and probably could have fitted onto a single dual layer Blu-ray, but that would have made the boxset look famished). Also, the first movie had a sub-standard transfer, although some of it was unavoidable it seems (a fact that wasn't available at the time of my original rant). In my defence, I didn't buy the box set, but only the individual movies separately for $7.99 each. And at that price, some of these shortcomings, can be forgiven (certainly better than paying $65 for the boxset anyway). So "I won't be buying it" really meant "I won't be buying it unless it's heavily discounted and I must join in the hype of Black Friday or I will feel left out".

Well, at least I didn't pay $400 for a copy of Avatar on 3D Blu-ray.

Kinect is in the news again this week, and funnily, it had almost nothing to do with gaming. The news broke last week that only a week after the release of Kinect, it had been hacked, and Microsoft couldn't have been pleased at the development.

Then it turn out that they didn't really care either way, because the "hack" wasn't really a hack at all, at least according to Microsoft's definition of what a hack is. What happened was that somebody wrote open source drivers for Kinect so that it can be used on the PC, and because Microsoft intentionally (or they claim now) left the USB thingy open, Microsoft claims they were always hoping something like this would happen. I'm not sure about that, but Microsoft do have a history of mixing Xbox 360 and PC compatibility (the wired Xbox 360 gamepad works perfectly on the PC, and even the wireless one can be made to work via a dongle). And "unofficial" drivers aren't new, the Sony Sixaxis controller has a PC driver, and even the Wii-mote has one too.

Anyway, what was more interesting was how people decided to use the open source drivers and write their own PC based Kinect applications. And if you follow the link above, you'll see videos of object recognition, a Minority Report style web browsing experience using a simple Javascript add-on. And even a man boob tracker (not a typo). It just goes to show that Kinect has serious potential, but only if the right software is there for it. But that's always the hard part, and the reason why the Wii is struggling now is because, apart from Nintendo, nobody really knows how to makes good games for it.

And I was way off. I'm already over the 2700 word mark, and so my guestimate wasn't really close at all. But if you remove the Black Friday and Fallout related waffle, then it just about gets in there. So I probably should stop typing now, wish you all a great week, and type something along the lines of "see you next week".

See you next week.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

November 28, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.6.1 Update Freeware
November 28, 2010	XMedia Recode 2.2.8.9 Freeware
November 28, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.27 Freeware
November 27, 2010	ProgDVB 6.49.7 Freeware
November 26, 2010	Windows 7 Codecs 2.6.9 Freeware
November 26, 2010	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.7.3 Freeware
November 26, 2010	Vista Codec Package 5.8.6 Freeware
November 26, 2010	x264 r1804 Freeware
November 26, 2010	Roxio Toast 10.0.8
November 26, 2010	MKVExtractGUI-2 2.2.1.1 Freeware
November 26, 2010	DVDStyler 1.8.2 Freeware
November 26, 2010	Plex Media Center 0.9.1.2 Freeware
November 25, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 64-Bit 4.1.0 Freeware
November 25, 2010	K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.6.0 Freeware
November 25, 2010	TVersity Free Edition 1.9.3 Freeware
November 25, 2010	CDBurnerXP 4.3.8.2474 Freeware
November 25, 2010	Codec Tweak Tool 4.6.1 Freeware
November 24, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2744 Beta Freeware
November 24, 2010	DVD PixPlay 6.16
November 24, 2010	GOM Encoder 1.1.0.44
November 24, 2010	Boilsoft DVD Creator 2.61
November 24, 2010	Boilsoft Video Joiner for Mac 1.01
November 24, 2010	MediaCoder 0.7.5 Build 4790 Freeware
November 24, 2010	MediaInfo 0.7.37 Freeware
November 23, 2010	BDFix 1.3.3
November 23, 2010	AoA Audio Extractor 2.2.8 Freeware
November 23, 2010	TMP - Thies Media Project 0.1.3.3 Freeware
November 23, 2010	Any Video Converter Free 3.12 Freeware
November 23, 2010	Smart Cutter Ps/Ts 1.3.2
November 23, 2010	GOM Player 2.1.28.5039 Freeware
November 23, 2010	CopyToDVD 4.3.1.12
November 22, 2010	Cole2k Media - Codec Pack 7.9.3 Freeware
November 22, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.36.04 Beta Freeware
November 22, 2010	iPodME 2.4 Freeware
November 21, 2010	Unreal Media Server 7.5 Freeware
November 21, 2010	Haali Media Splitter 1.10.348.15 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 225

2010-11-20T23:19:00.000-08:00

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DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 225

21 November, 2010

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INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

My Fallout New Vegas addiction continues this week, but I've learnt to better deal with it, to live with it. A functioning addict, if you will. The numerous glitches are annoying, but they've almost become part of Fallout. I've managed to churn out a new NPD analysis, despite lacking real statistics, but still enough figures to tell me the Wii is doomed.

Game Consoles - October 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

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2. Weekly News Roundup

I managed to get the second edition of the now "neutered" NPD analysis up yesterday. Thanks to timely leaks, I was still able to get the sales figures for the three home based consoles. It was another good month for the Xbox 360, and a really really bad one for the Wii. The momentum in the this-gen format war has definitely shifted away from the Wii, and Nintendo would be wise to release the Wii 2 as soon as possible, but as I noted in the analysis, there may not be much Nintendo can do. I mean, if they come out with a more accurate Wii-mote, then that's basically the Move. If they ditch the remote altogether, then that's basically Kinect. And even if they add Blu-ray and HD, then they would only be doing catch up with the other consoles. The only thing in Nintendo's favour is that they're good at making family/casual games, so Wii Sports 2 will probably be better than anything Sony, Microsoft and their third party developers can come up with. But Nintendo are good at surprising the market, so I won't rule them out yet, but it's not looking great.

In the analysis, I also notice that Fallout New Vegas was the second best selling game (all platforms combined) for October. Just saying, like. The rest of this paragraph talks about FNV, so feel free to skip ahead (and I promise this will be the last time I talk about FNV in this edition of the WNR). I've also experienced my first serious glitch with FNV this week, in that I was not able to get Boone's Bitter Springs mission to start, even after getting the quest and then travelling to the marked point in Bitter Springs. What happened was that I wanted to do the Bitter Springs quests first before starting Boone's mission (as recommended, since it may be impossible to finish those quests after Boone's quest), so I had him wait just outside the town while I did those quests. This somehow glitched the quest and it was not possible to proceed with the quest afterwards. I solved it by returning to an earlier save (this is a Bethesda game, so save often, and keep the save files, don't overwrite them), travelling *with* Boone to the marked location to advance the quest (to go to "Coyote's Tail Ridge"), and then left Boone somewhere safe so I can then proceeded to finish the Bitter Springs quests alone, before retrieving Boone again to finish his quest. FNV is great so far, but it's not as well structured as Fallout 3, especially with the main storyline, but there's so much more to do in this game (maybe even too much to do I'm 30 hours in and still have barely discovered a third of all the locations). Still a highly recommended game though, especially for Fallout 3 fans. Anyway, I've now got the FNV stuff out of my system, so we can continue with the WNR.

Let's start with the copyright news. We first start with porn downloads, and the lucrative business of suing the downloaders of the pirated versions.

The Chicago Tribune profiles the main man behind the lawsuits, Chicago lawyer John `Pirate Slayer' Steel. Steel has portrayed himself as the saviour of the porn industry, but really, anybody can see it's all about the money. And as I've mentioned before, suing for porn downloads has the added advantage of further embarrassment, which may force the alleged downloaders to pay up, even if they don't really think they did it. And then there's the issue of discrimination, as hinted by the EFF. For many who are not out in the open about their sexual preference, being identified in downloading non mainstream porn may be an extremely terrifying experience, and this kind of "legal blackmail" (not my term, but one that has been used before to describe these kinds of lawsuits) is not helpful, especially with the recent issues with sexual discrimination and bullying. Isn't this a form of bullying as well, to threaten to make the private (even if illegal) activities of the accused public and demand payment to keep it quiet?

But all will happen is that people will stop BitTorrenting porn and get them via other sources that are not being monitored by these law firms, like the many "Tube" sites or Usenet. And how does this actually help the porn industry, exactly? Of course it won't, but it will help people and firms like John Steel's, and that's what this is all about really.

While porn lawsuits may be making big money for the law firms involved, suing bloggers for using only excerpts of newspaper articles may not be. It appears that Righthaven, the law firm leading these types of lawsuits, appears to be facing far too many obstacles in their attempt to make money. First of all, the people they go after are usually bloggers, writers, business people and usually people with opinions that are not easily suppressed via lawsuits, nor are the type that are easily embarrassed. So going after the likes of Democratic Underground (DU), probably the largest political forum for left-leaning Americans, was not really the best idea to begin with. And it appears Righthaven is now in retreat mode, and wants to drop the DU lawsuit if the other side agrees not to pursue legal costs, something that would make their mass lawsuits unprofitable. This comes after they already lost a lawsuit in which they tried to get a Las Vegas Realtor to pay up for using excerpts, a lawsuit they ended up losing. So it hasn't been smooth sailing for Righthaven, and perhaps in time they'll realise that it's just not worth the trouble to sue bloggers, many of whom want nothing less than a full day in court, which would make great material for their blog, not to mention the publicity.

And while this suing for settlement thing is just getting started in the US, it may already be winding up in the UK, after their legal authority has started investigating these practices, with key players facing punishment. At the heart of the issue is the apparent fact that lawyers for the law firm Davenport Lyon (which has since stopped participating in these types of lawsuits) may have knowing proceeded with lawsuits even when they may have been aware that the alleged parties were innocent. This is largely due to the fact that IP addresses can hardly be considered to be conclusive evidence of illegal activities, especially when IP addresses can be shared between many users, at different times of the day. And at best, it identifies which ISP account was used to make the download, it does not identify the individual, or whether the account holder even had knowledge of the act, let alone gave permission. The legal system really needs to examine whether just a single IP address is enough to prove infringement, because remember that I could connect to a BitTorrent swarm for just a single second, and have my IP address recorded, but have I really committed copyright infringement? For just a second? In my opinion, they should at least establish how long it would typically take to download the content in question (say 1 hour for a movie at typical download speeds), and if the identified person's IP address(es) hasn't been connected to the swarm for at least this time period, then you cannot say that the person even managed to download the file in question. And via the same system, they can work out how much was uploaded, and count the number of infringements based on these two numbers. Because I don't think it's fair that "attempted infringement" is punished in the same way as actual, mass, infringement (if someone stays a seeder for say weeks, compared to someone who attempted to download the file but failed and didn't upload much in return either).

But the legal establishment is mostly too clueless to understand these arguments, or just how BitTorrent works. And the same goes for the government as well, and both groups are easily persuaded by lobbyist, if not by the political/financial favours, then at the very least by the scary, Armageddon scenarios that the industry likes to invent ("Hollywood will be bankrupt, millions more unemployed, if we don't stop college students from downloading Avatar", for example). And Hollywood relies on this to further their aim of *not* having to evolve their business model. But it appears that not everyone in Hollywood agrees with what the bosses think is the best way for the industry to move forward (by not moving forward). Many seems to believe that innovation is still at the heart of the solution for the piracy problem, and even though I'm not in the industry, I have to agree as well.

Just look at the Netflix and their trouble of getting their Android app. Now, some of it is due to the way the Android system is set up (fragmentation, the lack of a common DRM/security platform), but in the end, the problem comes down to DRM, and the way major studios demand DRM to be in place before Netflix can get an app up for Android. Now, how many people are going to be pirating movies via their Android phone? For one, the video quality provided will be quite poor, sub-DVD standard crap that any decent rip online would better. And who pays for a Netflix streaming service and then pirates videos, when they can skip paying and still pirate movies from the variety of sources. But nevertheless, innovation, which can actually lead to more profits for movie studios in the future and a new way to deliver movies to consumers, is stopped dead in its track. If record labels had gotten their way in regards to DRM and making sure portable devices won't play non DRM'd music (as to not "encourage piracy"), then they would have ensured failure for the iPod/iPhone, and does that really help anyone? It certainly would have hurt Apple, but lawmakers are more than happy to put up with the ridiculous demands of one industry, even if it means hurting another. So the likes of Netflix, Apple and ISPs have to suffer in order to protect the dying business model of the entertainment industry, and somehow this is fair?

And now the US government (and by that, I mean both sides of politics) is willing to screw up the entire Internet, just so the MPAA can block The Pirate Bay, with the controversial Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act passing unanimously through committee. The MPAA immediately defended the decision, via their usual way of lying and exaggerating about everything. What this means is that the US government can effectively censor websites that the MPAA (and RIAA) deems "bad", and this could be anything from The Pirate Bay to perhaps an innovative competitor that could become a threat. And this kind of Net censorship destroys the United States' moral authority on online freedom of speech. That's far too big a price to pay just to give the MPAA/RIAA a false sense of security, because people will still find a way to download pirated content.

And remember, this all assumes that piracy is costing the industry millions and billions every year, and there's no way to tell what the monetary damage is, because we don't know what people who pirate a lot of stuff will do if all pirated content is removed. The industry say that these people will *all* start buying things, which is as ridiculous as saying that *all* shoplifters would become customers if we make it impossible for them to steal (and we all know how the MPAA/RIAA likes to use the shoplifting analogy). Perhaps all that will happen is that a very small minority of downloaders will convert to customers (and they will buy much less than they download today), and the rest will simply find something else to occupy their times, with barely an improvement in the bottom line for the industry (and all this achieved at great costs, both financially, and in terms of civil rights). Just look at the best selling game in recent times, StarCraft II. It made huge amounts of money, some 1.5 million copies of the game was sold in the first 48 hours alone. And yet, it is the most pirated game in history! And sales continues to be brisk, with 3 million copies sold by the end of September. Blizzard, the company that made the game, have been extremely happy with the results, and have made little if any noise about the high piracy rate. And despite the game being easy to pirate (although online multiplayer is not available in the pirated versions, again this goes towards innovation and making an online experience that's just not "piratable"), people are still buying and I suspect many that downloaded the illegal version have "upgraded" to the paid version, bringing more profit to the company. So piracy will probably always exists, not all piracy will automatically convert to sales if piracy is prevented, but piracy can lead to sales if the product/content is good. Only those industries that churn out crap and expect consumers to lap it up will be ultimately hurt most by piracy, and I guess that explains why the entertainment industry is so concerned.

In HD news, the stats for the week that Toy Story 3 was released came out, and it wasn't as good as I had expected (didn't break any records, for a start), but it was certainly still a great week for Blu-ray you can read the analysis here.

There was one story which caught my eye, and I'm still not sure if it was a hoax or not, but Best Buy UK offered all the Harry Potter movies on Blu-ray, and a Toshiba Blu-ray player, all for only seven pounds, which works out to be $11 USD. And it wasn't a typo either. But the condition of sale was rather harsh you had to have the same legal names as one of the three main characters of the film, Harry Potter of course, Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley. And even if you were unfortunate enough to share their names, you had to be the first 100 to get the offer (although are there really 100 people, even in the UK, named Harry Potter, Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley?)

That's one interesting sale, but some more mainstream sales will be here this week as part of the US Black Friday sales. I'm on the lookout for some bargains too (mainly focusing on Amazon), and perhaps I'll post about any deals I find on the blog, or in the deals section. Something like Iron Man 2, Avatar for under $10, and some older titles for under $5, won't be too much of a surprise.

And in gaming, I've already talked about the NPD analysis above (as well as rambled on about Fallout New Vegas). I've thought more about what I said last week about Kinect, and I still firmly believe that Kinect will be more successful than the Move.

The main reason is all those families who have Wii's but are now bored with it, and looking for something new. They will look at the Move and say, well, I've already got something similar, is it really different enough, even if it is better? Those that want Blu-ray players may go for the PS3 + Move, but others will look at Kinect and feel that this really is something different. And Sony goes on about the Move being for hardcore gamers, but really, that's not where the money is or has been ever since the Wii was introduced. Microsoft's plan, on the other hand, seems to be to convert every casual/family Wii owners into a Kinect owner, and if they succeed, then it will enable to comfortably win this generation's console war. It's risky, but it might just work.

The people behind the PSJailbreak has a new piece of software, called PSDowngrade, which will be added onto the existing function of the PSJailbreak device. What it does is allow the PS3 firmware to be downgraded to an older version that supports the PSJailbreak device, namely 3.41. So there is a way out for those stuck with the new firmware, which has become a requirement if one wishes to play some of the latest games. It just goes to show how resourceful hackers can be, and that any so called foolproof system will not be for very long.

And that's all for this week. More next week.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

November 21, 2010	ReClock DirectShow Filter 1.8.7.2w beta Freeware
November 21, 2010	VideoReDo TVSuite 3.2.0-609
November 21, 2010	VideoReDo Plus 3.10.3-609
November 21, 2010	Clown_BD 0.79 Freeware
November 21, 2010	ProgDVB 6.49.6 Freeware
November 21, 2010	x264 r1788 Freeware
November 20, 2010	Mp3tag 2.47a Freeware
November 20, 2010	VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264 4.20.6.610
November 19, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.9.7
November 19, 2010	XBMC media center Dharma 10.0 RC1 Freeware
November 19, 2010	BDFix 1.3.2
November 19, 2010	3DBDBuster 3.5
November 19, 2010	Replay Media Catcher 4.0.1.7
November 19, 2010	Subtitle Edit 3.0 Freeware
November 19, 2010	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.7.343
November 18, 2010	Cyberlink PowerDirector 9.0
November 18, 2010	My MP4Box GUI 0.5.5.4 Freeware
November 18, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.36.03 Beta Freeware
November 18, 2010	RAD Video Tools 1.9y Freeware
November 18, 2010	SolveigMM AVI Trimmer 2.0.1011.17 Beta Freeware
November 18, 2010	DVD slideshow GUI 0.9.3.9 Freeware
November 18, 2010	VIDEOzilla 3.2
November 17, 2010	Arcsoft Totalmedia Theatre 5.0
November 17, 2010	LoiLoScope 1.8.3
November 17, 2010	All My Movies 6.1 build 1304
November 17, 2010	Collectorz.com Movie Collector For Mac OS X 3.4.4
November 17, 2010	WinMPG Video Convert 9.1.8
November 16, 2010	Any Video Converter Free 3.11 Freeware
November 16, 2010	MKVtools 2.4.3 Freeware
November 16, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.31.1336
November 16, 2010	Muxman Pro 1.4.0
November 16, 2010	Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD 5.0.0.110
November 16, 2010	ffdshow Rev. 3631 (generic/x64) Freeware
November 16, 2010	Windows 7 Codecs 2.6.7 Freeware
November 16, 2010	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.7.1 Freeware
November 16, 2010	BurnAware Free Edition 3.1 Freeware
November 15, 2010	DVDINFOPro 6.518
November 15, 2010	Subler 0.10 Freeware
November 15, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.26 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 224

2010-11-14T00:42:00.000-08:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 224

14 November, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

Sorry for all the Fallout references in this week's WNR. This is the side effect of playing hour and hours of Fallout New Vegas this week. I bet it's actually hard to find someone who's played Fallout extensively, but hasn't had a Fallout related dream yet, or hasn't thought twice about throwing away a soft drink/beer bottle cap.

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

I've been playing a lot of Fallout New Vegas recently, which isn't very surprising for those who remember how fond I was of Fallout 3. And as a result, the quality of this issue of WNR may not be up to the usual high standards (haha), as I'm a bit distracted thinking about the best way to earn the caps needed to get the implants that I want (long story). FNV seems a much bigger game than Fallout 3, but this isn't always a good thing, since it feels a bit less cohesive, as a game, to me. And it also means a lot more bugs, and I'm not talking about the radioactive kind.

And with so many distractions, I've only managed to find a few pieces of news before I got bored and started yet another 4 hour FNV session. So let's get through this week's news quickly so I can get back to figuring out the best way to get to the peak of Black Mountain.

In copyright news this week, it always surprised me that it didn't happen sooner, but the FBI has finally gotten involved with the global anti-copyright protest launched by 4chan/Anonymous, otherwise known as Operation Payback (is a bitch).

The FBI has started investigating the denial of service attacks aimed at anyone associated with the pro-copyright lobby, from the RIAA/MPAA to copyright law firms. Despite making headline news several weeks ago, the FBI has only just gotten involved (or rather, they've only made their involvement known this week). But who do you arrest though? The whole point of the Low Orbit Ion Cannon is that anyone can join in the attack, anonymously. Will they go after 4chan? Or some of the individuals that joined in on the action using their own private, and more deadly, DDoS resources? Anyway, as I said earlier, this doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, the first thing I thought of after reading about Operation Payback was what the FBI response was going to be, because as we all know, the FBI has practically become the private security force of the entertainment/pro-copyright lobby, having many times prioritized copyright operations over other more serious crimes.

The FBI aren't the only law enforcement organisation to be overworked with copyright cases these days. The police departments of University towns may be completely overwhelmed if Universities start to follow the example set by Georgia's Valdosta State University, by reporting any and all P2P usage to the police as suspected piracy activity (or at least threatening to do so). Note that I said "any and all" P2P usage, including legal usage, which the University appears unable to distinguish from the illegitimate kind. So Comp Science students downloading that latest Linux ISO (every "legal P2P" discussion has to feature the much talked about "Linux ISO", doesn't it?), might be disciplined by the University and have the incident reported to the police. This comes after the US government decided to link education funding to the ability of colleges and Universities to stop piracy (and to be fair to the current government, this was some left over legislation from the previous one). Putting education at risk to help out a multi-billion dollar industry in stopping acts that typically don't cause them any harm anyway, is exactly the type of screwed-up pro-copyright legislation you would expect these days. And with funding at risk, how far will these colleges and Universities have to go in order to fulfil their federal obligations? Random computer searches? iPod inventory inspections? Full body cavity search for illegal MP3s?

The MPAA is fulfilling its duties to the US government this week by handing over a letter containing a list of "bad places", websites that could offer illegal content, and regions in which these websites operate out of. For those interested, the list of "bad countries" include Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea and of course, the most evil-doing country in the world, Sweden, home of The Pirate Bay. The websites listed also included cyber-locker website, RapidShare. Not to be outdone, the RIAA came up with their own, even more broad, list of bad places, which included China's most popular search engine, Baidu. The Baidu listing is interesting, because it fulfils the requirement to single out China as a bad bad country, which is always a popular political move, and also it gives notice to the likes of Google that they need to continue to cooperate or face being added to the naughty list too. VKontakte, Russia's answer to Facebook, with Myspace/YouTube rolled into one service, was also placed on the RIAA's list, perhaps as a warning to Facebok and YouTube as well. Both the MPAA and RIAA made it clear that their list was by no means an exhaustive list of all the Internet's bad spots (a list like that would be like twenty thousand pages), but I have a suggestion for them that could save them a lot of time and reduce the list to just one entry. All they need to do is to simply write down "The Internet" as their list of "bad places", and be done with it we all know they want to. And then the US government can do their bureaucratic duties, and get "The Internet" banned, and receive their just reward of +15 Karma, 500 Caps and 800 XP and receive the "Idolized" reputation with the MPAA/RIAA. Must. Resist. Urge. To. Play. Fallout. New. Vegas

One website that didn't make the list this year was LimeWire, having been recently closed down. But despite the ban on the software, enterprising pirates have continued on and released a pirated version of LimeWire Pro, called LimeWire Pirate Edition, so that LimeWire can live on forever in infamy. The LimeWire people are not too pleased at this development, which could cause them more legal trouble, especially if it is found that they are connected to this "leak" IN some way, something they are strongly denying. But all this just proves that for all the effort gone into making the legal case, all the hours of billing by lawyers on both sides, and the years of investigative work done on the case, the result is that piracy continues unhindered once more. While I'm still not convinced who actually came up with the phrase "innovate or die", but whomever did was a hundred percent correct, and instead of trying to stop piracy by fighting it head on, perhaps innovation is the key. Litigation certainly doesn't seem to be working.

And I know this probably goes into the gaming section, but the point I wanted to make falls right here in the copyright section. A lot of retailers have begun to complain about how publishers are "encouraged" by Steam to add Steam related features to their games, even if the games themselves are being sold through other channels, including services that are competitors to Steam. You can sort of see their point, since every game like this they sell, they are actually promoting their competitor and accelerating their own demise, which is why some retailers have indicated their desire to boycott games that feature Steam. You can see why Steam is doing it as well, to grow their business, to get people hooked on their free add-on service so that they will buy games directly from Steam the next time.

So what does this have to do with copyright? Well, the way Steam has revolutionized digital delivery for PC/Mac games, despite using a healthy dose of DRM, perhaps shows the way, the only way, in which DRM can be used. With lower pricing (especially during sales), and add-on features like achievements and multi-player modes, and not having to insert the original DVD, people seem accept that the price for all this is a little bit of fairly non intrusive DRM. Now, if this kind of innovation can be extended to the movie and music, perhaps creating exclusive online content (much better than your typical BD-live crap), creating a healthy online community for music/movie lovers to share the passion, and at the same time, lower prices for digital download or streaming version of movies (and perhaps even free streaming of music, with options to purchase), all of this could help combat piracy by providing innovative features that people can't get with the pirated versions.

Moving on to HD news. Microsoft has taken advantage of Apple's reluctance to support Blu-ray and produced a promotional video to highlight this point.

The video basically shows how Windows 7 supports Blu-ray and Macs do not (I shall skip a more detailed description of the video, since you can watch it for yourself, and also I didn't think it was particularly witty or clever to be honest). As for the claim, yes, it is correct that you can watch Blu-ray movies in Windows 7 whereas you cannot easily do so on a Mac, but Windows 7 doesn't offer native Blu-ray playback support at all, not out of the box anyway. But hardly anyone watches Blu-ray on their computer, mainly because it doesn't look that much better on a small screen (especially the laptop screen demonstrated in the video) than your typical DVD, and the less said about the laptop speaker produced sound, the better. If they want a better selling point, why not produce a video showing Fallout New Vegas working in Windows and highlight the fact that the game isn't even available on a Mac? And that the game needs a fairly powerful GPU, and options are very much limited on a Mac even if you use Bootcamp? Just make sure you don't mention the way the game crashes every 20 minutes, although that's not really Microsoft's fault (Bethesda Softworks, for all their brilliance, really need to invest a bit more into beta testing).

You see what I did there, how I'm basically turning every issue into one about Fallout? Is it a deliberate attempt at humour, or am I subconsciously still thinking about playing FNV?

No need to ponder the reasons, since this fairly short WNR is at an end, and that means Fallout time! So until next week, have a great one, hope you get lucky at the Ultra-Luxe, may your locker/mailbox/metal box scavenging bring you a vast amount of valuable goods and/or caps, and watch out for the Deathclaws (which are a real PITA in FNV).

I need help.

******************************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

November 14, 2010	VideoLAN (VLC) 1.1.5 Freeware
November 13, 2010	Mpg2Cut2 AA30 Beta Freeware
November 13, 2010	VidCoder 0.7.0 Freeware
November 13, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2726 Beta Freeware
November 13, 2010	VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264 4.20.5.608 Beta
November 13, 2010	ProgDVB 6.49.4 Freeware
November 13, 2010	Cinema Craft Encoder SP3 1.0.6.6
November 13, 2010	Quick Media Converter 4.5.0.0 HD Beta
November 13, 2010	SageTV 7.0
November 13, 2010	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.6.342 pre-release
November 12, 2010	BluffTitler 8.1.0.2
November 12, 2010	MediaCoder 0.7.5 Build 4780 Freeware
November 11, 2010	XenonMKV Revision 37 Freeware
November 11, 2010	MythTV 0.24 Freeware
November 11, 2010	x264 r1766 Freeware
November 11, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.36.02 Beta Freeware
November 10, 2010	The KMPlayer 3.0.0.1439 Freeware
November 10, 2010	K-Lite Video Conversion Pack 1.8.5 Freeware
November 10, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.5.5 Update Freeware
November 9, 2010	XMedia Recode 2.2.8.4 Freeware
November 8, 2010	Avanti 0.4.9 Freeware
November 8, 2010	BDtoAVCHD 1.2.2 Freeware
November 8, 2010	HDPVR Capture 2.8.2 Freeware
November 8, 2010	AsfBin 1.8.0 Freeware
November 7, 2010	SUPER v2010.build.42 Freeware
November 7, 2010	BDFix 1.3.0
November 7, 2010	Andy's FLV Join 0.6 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 223

2010-11-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 223

7 November, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

The WNR is slightly more political this week than usual, so I've already put on my flame suit in anticipation of the angry emails that will flood in accusing me of being a socialist *and* a Nazi. They're totally wrong of course. I'm actually a communist.

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

Well, we've reached November, the final set, the last quarter, the penultimate inning, the last ten minutes before the start of injury time, and many other sports terms that I have absolutely no idea about. And despite getting near the end of 2010, we still haven't made contact, and with all the world's problems today, an alien intervention may not be the worst thing ever, although hopefully not the kind of intervention that recent movies are predicting. The news are a bit more plentiful this week, but by no means a busy week in terms of copyright, HD/3D or gaming, I think mostly due to other more important events taking place in the US at least. But there are still a few things to talk about, so let's get started.

Starting with copyright news, and trying to find some connection to the big news of the week, we have this story about the effect of the the US midterm election results on the issue of copyright, particularly Internet copyright.

The conclusion? Probably business as usual. A lot of people are unhappy that the developments in the last two years in terms of Internet copyright has been very much biased towards the content owners, big business, and so some naturally blame the people in power, the Democrats. But I think that's partially unfair, because if you look at the pro-copyright bills that's been brought up in Congress, you will find that these bills always receive bi-partisan support. It's about the only thing in D.C. that the two major parties can agree on, and that to me, is a very sad state of affairs indeed. And with the Republican's generally pro-business ideology, things will probably get worse in the next two years, not better. But it is also fair to blame Democrats too. If you allow me to go slightly off topic and talk politics for a minute, then I think the blame for the pro-copyright bias is still very much on Democrats, even though both parties support the pro-business, anti-consumer and anti-privacy agendas of the RIAA and MPAA. The reason I blame the Democrats is simply this: they should know better.

I'm not surprised Republicans will eventually support three-strikes, or make it easier for corporations to sue individuals, or otherwise go out of their way to help big business it's what their politics are about. However, being the left leaning party, the Democrats ought to stand for principles such as privacy, freedom of speech, and as progressives, they should embrace the Internet and support innovation (they certainly did during the election campaign that saw Obama and the Democrats use the Internet to great effect in terms of campaigning). The last thing they should be doing is to cosy up to big business, to help them suppress innovation, the way they have done in the last two years. It's not their M.O, or at least it shouldn't be. Now I do realise that Hollywood and the Democrats have a great relationship traditionally, but that's mainly the people who work in Hollywood, the left leaning actors and actresses, and their support of the more progressive aspects of Democrat's policies. The relationship should definitely not automatically extend to the people who own Hollywood, the multi-national conglomerates like Sony or 20th Fox and the groups that represent them, like the MPAA. For these companies and groups, their sole aim is to protect their ageing business model, even if it comes at the expense of the hard working people in the industry (the writer strike being a prime example). If Obama and the Democrats want to have a serious chance to get back some of the things they lost last Tuesday in two year's time, they need to go back to their roots, to support policies that their core supports, or at least stand for something. And maybe even that would not be enough, but maybe it will help promote some positive change, or at least put up some kind of fight for those that rely on them to be their voice in government. It's about principles, stupid.

One of the principles I mentioned earlier is privacy, which in this day and age, becomes somewhat incompatible with the business goals for big business. In an '1984-esque' development, a new technology has been developed in the UK that allows complex system to watch the watchers (of cinema, that is). Instead of going to the cinemas with your family, having overpaid for everything, the last thing people expect will be that they become some kind of lab experiment, where their every emotions are recorded so that big business can find better ways to get you to pay for stuff. While '1984? was very much about the authoritarian governments, but corporations are just as dangerous, because they now have enough power and money to directly influence governments, if not control them outright. So something like this, which many will object to (if they knew about it), would probably still get the nod in the US because the lobbyist will ensure they get enough support in government to nullify opposition. And because the same system can be used to prevent piracy, then that becomes the perfect Trojan Horse to make it all nice and legal. Terrorists support torrent downloading or something, and so if you're against spying on cinema-goers, then you're supporting terrorism. And do you really want to be labelled as a terrorist supporter when you're up for re-election in a year or two?

But while this technology has been developed in the UK, the newly elected UK government (well, new as in since May), may in fact be changing directions in terms of digital copyright law. Or not. The previous so called left leaning, progressive Labour government, who got UK into two wars against the wishes of the people and general progressive principles (it's that word again!), was also very pro big business in its support for controversial copyright laws, including the planned introduction of a three-strikes, and widespread spying of people to prevent them from downloading too many MP3s. The more left leaning coalition part of the current government, who are in a coalition with the conservatives (their politics is probably more progressive than the Democrats, by US standards, according to some UK friends), are probably responsible for the review of copyright laws, which will look at things like fair use. Reversing the previous government's "achievements" may also have played a part in the decision. But I suspect the review will come, some fair use provisions will be added, but it won't make the laws any better than what's already law in the US. In fact, the Prime Minister has already signalled that they will be doing the review by looking at the US laws. It may very well be a case of the blind leading (or in this case, following) the blind.

And sorry to get back to politics again, but I must say that the current screwed up state of things is very much to do with us, the electorate, than any government or lobbyist. We allow our freedoms to be curbed in the name of helping big business because we simply do not care enough. Perhaps there are too many other more serious problems to consider, but I would have expected more discontent at government action to give corporations the power to spy on our Internet usage. Yes, the Operation Payback from 4chan/Anonymous is something, but I think in the end, it could backfire and alienate the mainstream. Because many of them, probably most of them don't download things illegally, and they may even support harsher sanctions against downloaders, pirates, who have been demonized by the RIAA/MPAA through advertising ("They support terrorism and organised crime and are no better than common thieves!"). But it's the rights of everyone that will be affected when ISPs can legally spy on your downloads (and it won't end there either). When they came for the pirates, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a pirated etc. Okay, that may be a bit dramatic, but big business have been trying to erode our rights, as citizens and consumers, for years now, but they've never faced so much apathy. The EFF and the ACLU can only do so much, if we don't voice out discontent, in a mainstream fashion.

And to present further proof of the struggle we face, not just against big business, but also against our fellow citizens in terms of fighting for fairer copyright laws, a jury (or her peers, apparently) has rewarded Capitol records, a subsidiary of a multi-billion dollar company, $1.5 million against the most famous music pirate of all time, Jammie Thomas-Rasset. This is the third time damages have been awarded against the Native American mother of four, $222,000 originally, then $1.92 million and this week, $1.5 million. Now I understand juries are under instruction to award certain amount of damages based on the law, but if one jury can award "only" $222,000, why would other juries give out seven figure awards? Is there no sympathy for someone who has done something that millions of other American have done, and are doing, every day? It says something when usually the pro-business judges (and they are pro-business, because the copyright laws are pro-business, and judges must make judgements based on the law, however biased it is) are the ones coming out against such extravagant damages being awarded. By giving record labels and movie studios what they want, these juries of our peers are just giving these corporations the ammunition they need to make it legal for them to sacrifice everyone's privacy for their bottom line, because anything is better than seven figure damages being awarded against individuals, right?

And it's decisions like this that have emboldened certain law firms in their mass-litigation attempts, the latest and greatest way to make money off of this is to sue for porn downloads, with more than 7000 being sued in the latest case. And there will come a time when there are so many lawsuits, that people will say enough it enough, but then the industry will put forward a better alternative, and that will be the three-strikes, "we spy on you for our own gains", method. And many freedom loving citizens will eat it up because they will say it's better than being sued, and since they haven't done anything illegal on the Internet, it won't affect them. Except it will, one day, when they will be spied upon for anything and everything. Because if one corporations can spy on you for their own gains, then another corporations should be allowed to do the same, and then surely it makes sense for governments to spy on you for the nobler aim of law and order too. And it's ironic that in the end, it may be other corporations that stand up to this in a more meaningful manner than the general public, because what's good for one industry may very well come at the expense of another, just like three-strikes takes money away from the Internet industry and gives it to the entertainment industry. And this is why we have the good news that UK ISP, BT, have put a stop to at least one law firm's mass-litigation attempts by deleting subscriber usage histories, histories that the law firm in question, Gallant Macmillan, needed to proceed with their case. And even the recent UK copyright review, mentioned above, was recommended in an indirect way by the owners of Google, who say that the UK's unfair copyright laws meant that a company like Facebook, Google or YouTube can never have been created in that country. Copyright is hurting innovation, and companies that rely on innovation, even if they're faceless mega-corporations, will put up a fight for their own self interest. It's time, that ordinary people like you and me, also put up a fight ourselves, for our own self interest.

Moving on to happier pasture, in HD/3D news. I've noticed a trend recently whereby studios are releasing more and more Blu-ray exclusives, especially for classic titles (such as Sound of Music, Psycho, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Apocalypse Now, to name a few).

This is good news for Blu-ray, as it signals studios may be shifting away from DVD altogether. And it's also good news that these classics are selling well on Blu-ray too, meaning there is definitely a market out there for people who want to watch their favourites classics with audio/video quality that hasn't before been possible on a home video format. Certainly, a lot of people have home theater set-ups that beat the quality available at the best cinemas at the time these classics were first released, and it's a real pleasure to be able to enjoy quality movies this way, in the comfort of your own home. If you want an argument for Blu-ray, then this is the best one. Which makes the Lord of the Rings Blu-ray disaster even more disappointing.

Moving on to something completely different, some have already accused Google TV of being fragment on release. I don't want to go into too much detail on the arguments for and against this, since I've already covered it in my forum post, but as someone who has done a little bit of Android development, I have to agree that fragmentation is a big issue, and that the way Google are doing things, it's making fragmentation a real problem. The freedom that Google gives manufacturers may not be worth whatever benefits that it provides in the short term (more varied range of devices).

But a closed system, like Apple's, have their own unique set of problems. The latest involved the VLC app for iOS, which may very well be withdrawn from the Apps market due to the issue of copyright. But unlike most copyright disputes, this time, it's almost the other way around. Instead of arguing that Apple have stolen their copyright, the creators of VLC are arguing that Apple is imposing too many copyright restrictions on their open source media player. The issue is complicated by the fact that the app wasn't produced by the creators of VLC, but by a third party (they're allowed to do it because VLC is open source). But Apple's apps are limited in that, even for the free ones, they come with licenses that prohibits their sharing (to 5 devices only), which is totally against the open source principle to which the people behind VLC not only believes, but is also bound by law to respect. And this isn't the first time some open source based app has faced this issue with Apple, with Apple's previous actions being to remove the app, rather than change their somewhat draconian copyright/DRM attitude. And it will probably be the same with the VLC app, so for those that want it, you should download it ASAP, before it disappears, if it hasn't already.

And finally in gaming, Kinect has been released and it's doing very well, at least according the Amazon sales charts (currently the 2nd best seller, just behind Call of Duty: Black Ops).

And with two more Kinect titles in the top 10 (Kinect Sport at 5th and Dance Central at 6th), and the Kinect bundle at 8th, it looks to be a very good holiday period for Microsoft (the top selling CoD: Black Ops is also the Xbox 360 version, btw).

Kinect is not perfect. Not even close. And Sony's Move appears to have many advantages over it (like being more much, much more accurate, and easier to integrate into hardcore games). But what sells well is less about perfection (the Wii wasn't perfect, neither are top selling devices like the iPhone). It's more about hype, potential, being different to everything else on the market, and Kinect beats the Move in all of these aspects. Sony producing just a more accurate (and of course, better) version of the Wii, in my opinion, will not work as well as they will hope. And if you just look at the way the PS3 is designed, especially the XMB user interface, it just doesn't scream "casual gaming", as much as Microsoft's cute avatars (stolen shamelessly from Nintendo, but hey, whatever works, right?). And the casual gaming market, is where the big money may be had, especially if you include the new generation of casual, Facebook and mobile phone, gamers.

Of course, for Kinect to be a success, it has to at the very least work adequately. That's where it may fail, if the requirements for a relatively big space is too much for most families, or that the lack of accuracy makes gaming too random (although it seems to not have worked against the Wii's initial success), or that it just doesn't have the right games to take advantage (the most likely scenario for failure). But unlike the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft have always had a great range of third-party titles that take full advantage of the console. And Microsoft will have to rely on these companies to make compelling Kinect games, and avoid Shovelware that characterizes most third-party Wii titles. If publishers take Kinect seriously, Kinect can be a very exciting platform.

And on that note, it's time to end this week's WNR. Hope you've enjoyed this one a bit better than the absolutely horrible last one, and here's hoping the next one will be even better (don't bet on it though).

******************************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

November 7, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2714 Beta Freeware
November 7, 2010	Bencos 2010-11-05 Freeware
November 7, 2010	XMedia Recode 2.2.8.3 Freeware
November 7, 2010	Comskip 0.80.038
November 7, 2010	MediaLink 2.10
November 7, 2010	ProgDVB 6.49.2 Freeware
November 6, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.36.01 Beta Freeware
November 6, 2010	Smart Cutter Ps/Ts 1.3.1
November 6, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.30.1306
November 5, 2010	DVD PixPlay 6.15
November 5, 2010	BDFix 1.2.9
November 4, 2010	Windows Essentials Codec Pack 3.2 Freeware
November 4, 2010	Moovida 2.0.2 Freeware
November 4, 2010	DVDINFOPro 6.517
November 3, 2010	Boilsoft Screen Recorder 1.05
November 3, 2010	Boilsoft AVI to DVD Converter 4.61
November 3, 2010	Ut Video Codec Suite 8.5.0 Freeware
November 2, 2010	MKVToolnix 4.4.0 Freeware
November 2, 2010	AVS Video Converter 7.0.3.453
November 2, 2010	AviDemux 2.5.4 Freeware
November 2, 2010	J. River Media Center 15.0.142
November 2, 2010	BDedit 0.39
November 1, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.9.5
November 1, 2010	EMDB 1.21 Freeware
November 1, 2010	MediaPortal 1.2.0 Alpha Freeware
November 1, 2010	SUPER v2010.build.41 Freeware
November 1, 2010	WebVideoCap 1.40 Freeware
November 1, 2010	TS-Doctor 1.0.70 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 222

2010-10-31T01:34:00.000-07:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 222

31 October, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

Happy Halloween to all of you, even those that aren't witches and have proclaimed themselves non witches via a political ad. Also, since this is issue 222, if you times this number by 3, then that's 666 - spooky or what!

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

Welcome to the Halloween edition of WNR. In this issue, you'll read about extra scary stories about how big business is taking away your civil rights with the support of both major sides of politics, how your privacy is being invaded by greedy corporations, and how enterprising law firms are planning to make millions by suing you for downloading porn (whether you did it or not).

So basically the same as usual, I guess.

Actually, it's not the same as usual, because there has been a real lack of news this week. I have to say some of it is down to me being extra busy this week, but I really did try and find news, honest! And I guess you might also be busy what with the last minute costume changes, the stocking up of rotten eggs/toilet paper, or if you're just high on candy, so let's make this quick.

In Copyright news, LimeWire has finally closed its doors. After it lost a major lawsuit in May, the consensus was always that it would be only a matter of time before the music sharing website had to close down, but the dreaded change finally took place this week.

If you go to the LimeWire website now, you'll see an official notice simply saying that the website is under a court injunction to stop distributing the LimeWire software, with a link to the actual court orders. The owners of LimeWire still plans to launch a legal version of the website/tool, much like how Napster went legit, but that all depends on the amount of damages that LimeWire has to pay.

With LimeWire gone, the illegal music sharing world is very much now just a collection of Torrent sites and P2P networks, nothing to centralised that it can be sued out of existence anyway. And however much money has been spent fighting websites like LimeWire, the issue of piracy still exists, and it was only through innovation (iTunes, cheaper tracks, no DRM, Spotify ), that there is actually some proper "competition" to illegal downloads. But if the industry keeps on pushing, and force people to adopt new ways to download that more effectively hides their activities, then there aren't going to be big, soft targets like LimeWire (or even The Pirate Bay) to sue any more, and all while the downloads continue. So for their sake, I hope they do take innovations seriously and try different models, even if some will ultimately fail, because what they're doing now certainly isn't succeeding (despite the court "victories").

And a couple of issues ago, I mentioned the Warner lawsuit against Triton Media (that's the Triton Media of Scottsdale, Arizona, not the Triton Media Group that comes up top in the Google results). Well, this week, Warner has won its case against Triton. A refresher on what the case was about basically, Triton Media acted to provide advertising to websites that possibly hosted illegal streams and downloads, and at the same time, it also ran its own possibly illegal streaming website. And instead of acting like a traditional online advertising company, Triton apparently went the extra step of helping to act as a sort of match-maker in matching potential advertisers to websites. And it's these actions that has ultimately led them to lose the case.

The dangers of this precedent is that it could then allows studios to sue the likes of Google and Yahoo, both of whom have their own advertising networks. With so many publishers signing up to Google and Yahoo's advertising programs, and with so many ads being served for all kinds of keywords and on all kinds of web pages, it should be easy for studios to find advertising links to illegal streaming/downloads, advertising showing up on searches for illegal downloads, and advertising revenue flowing to publishers of these sites. Suing a small fish like Triton will make it easier to sue a big fish like Google. But unlike Triton, Google has no personal, one on one relationship with most of its publishers and advertisers. And Google certainly don't run their own video streaming website that may be serving up pirated content oops, forgot about YouTube. In any case, there seems to be a shift towards suing revenue sources for piracy websites, but it still won't stop those that are not engaging in piracy for profit, which I think would account for the majority of downloads these days.

Which brings up to a rather strange story this week. A developer who says he has come up with an anti-piracy platform has decided to protest the fact that nobody in the industry seems to be taking him seriously by, wait for it, turning his anti-piracy tool into a MP3 download website. Apparently, the tool allows for instant monitoring and searching of source of illegal content, and so would allow content owners to easily identify where pirated copies existed, and get them removed (it appears to be a tracking tool for HTTP based piracy, not for Torrents). But when the developer, only known as Dominic, was ignored by the various anti-piracy organisations after demonstrating his tool, the same tool that found illegal downloads now served them up to anyone who wanted them, as a form of protest. And it appears his stunt worked, sort of, and he has had to remove the downloads after a cease and desist notice from the Australian Music Industry Piracy Investigations organisation was sent to his web host.

Apart from ignoring the potential of his anti-piracy tool (which, if the served up MP3s were any example, it works quite well), Dominic also protest what he sees as "contradictions, corruptions, ignorance, and an overwhelming fear of change" that's rife in the entertainment industry. From his work, he has also identified companies and even governments that advertise on websites that distribute illegal content (he has a list of them up on his website), some of them the very companies "going after mums, dads, kids, ISP's, and pretty much anyone else they can think of" when it comes to illegal downloads.

And unfortunately, that was pretty much that in terms of news this week. I know, it's barely three stories. I guess I could have mentioned something about the Sony PlayStation phone (as a recent convert to Android, adding dedicated game controls makes perfect sense), anything on the Black Friday sales, or even the news that Spotify may be closing in on a deal that could see the service arrive in the US. But hopefully, there will be more next week.

So for the rest of the WNR, I shall dazzle you with some Blu-ray sales graphs, showing you whatever you want to see depending on your point of view, something that stats and graphs are very good at showing. See you next week.

******************************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

October 31, 2010	XBMC media center Dharma 10.0 Beta4 Freeware
October 31, 2010	Mp3tag 2.46d Beta Freeware
October 31, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2703 Beta Freeware
October 31, 2010	MediaCoder 0.7.5 Build 4770 Freeware
October 31, 2010	WM Recorder 14.8
October 31, 2010	MKVcleaver 0.5.0.2 Freeware
October 30, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.28.1295
October 30, 2010	ProgDVB 6.49 Freeware
October 30, 2010	Subtitle Edit 3.0 RC4 Freeware
October 29, 2010	Any Video Converter Free 3.08 Freeware
October 29, 2010	BlazeVideo BlackBerry Video Converter 2.0.4.0
October 29, 2010	Plex Media Center 0.9.1.2 Freeware
October 29, 2010	Collectorz.com Movie Collector 7.1.3
October 29, 2010	VOB2MPG 3.2.000 Freeware
October 29, 2010	DVDStyler 1.8.2 RC2 Freeware
October 28, 2010	VDownloader 3.0.712
October 28, 2010	VideoFlick 1.0
October 28, 2010	BlazeVideo PSP Video Converter 2.0.4.0
	More updates from BlazeVideo...
October 28, 2010	CamStudio 2.6 Beta r294 Freeware
October 28, 2010	rebox.NET 0.9.2.1 RC2 Freeware
October 28, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.24 Freeware
October 26, 2010	EMDB 1.20 Freeware
October 26, 2010	Replay Media Catcher 4.0.1.4
October 26, 2010	VideoCacheView 1.81 Freeware
October 25, 2010	MediaInfo 0.7.36 Freeware
October 25, 2010	D-Vision 4.0 Alpha 8 Freeware
October 25, 2010	SUPER 2010.build.39 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 221

2010-10-24T01:15:00.000-07:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 221

24 October, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

It nearly didn't arrive, but it did eventually. The September US video games sales analysis is up, no thanks to the NPD for no longer releasing sales figures, but thanks to leaks and whatnot. Good news for Microsoft, okay-ish news for Sony, but otherwise another bad month for Nintendo. But they also have a couple of bad month before making up for it with a good holiday season last year, so will it be the same again this year, or will Move and Kinect take the spotlight away from the Wii?

Game Consoles September 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

So I did manage to get that NPD analysis done, thanks to some timely data leaks. Looks like that will have to be the order of the day from now on, relying on leaks from the likes of Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo to trumpet their own "magnificent" sales, and from other analysts who have access to the full NPD data. As for the actual data, as expected, the Xbox 360 won the month again thanks largely to Halo Reach. The only real loser though is the Wii, and that's becoming a disturbing trend for Nintendo lately. Otherwise, it was a relatively quiet week, so I think we can get through this WNR quite quickly, so I can go back to playing Starcraft 2, umm, I mean my other work.

Let's start with the copyright news. Could the solution to the piracy problem be to make legal purchases cheaper?

Regular readers will know this is a rhetorical question around here, since I have often expressed my view that cheaper purchases will mean people will buy more, while those that can only afford to pay a little can still pay, and not resort to piracy. It seems I'm not alone in thinking this, and this point of view has gotten support from an unexpected source, the former head of Warner Music, and one time President of the UK equivalent of the RIAA, Rob Dickins. Dickins believes by making music purchases a "non-decision" by making prices low, that people will buy more and that the piracy problem will be solved. There is some evidence to support this point of view though, because if you look at the smart-phone apps market, or ring-tones before, people are willing to pay, when these "micro-transactions" are small enough to make them not think about the buying decision, and they end up spending quite a lot of money when it's all added up. And on Steam, when games go on sale, they are snapped up quickly, and I know this to be a fact because I've done that plenty of times recently, and also the fact that Steam now seems to hold sales every other day. By making prices low so that those that are resorting to piracy due to lack of funds can at least pay something for a legal purchase, then that's something at least. And those that can afford to pay, will they pay less to get the same content as before, or will they get more content, now that prices are lower? It's definitely something to think about, and critics shouldn't dismiss this idea completely, to only look at the possible risks to short term gain.

Speaking of being short-sighted, it seems CBS and ABC have classified as Google's attempted revolution in Television, Google TV, as more of a threat than an opportunity. Both networks have banned their content from being shown on Google TV, because they believe that Google TV can be potentially used to located pirated content, and they want no part of this. I'm not sure if they've realised that by taking legal content "off the air" from Google TV, that means the only ABC and CBS shows available on Google TV will be from illegal sources, and just how exactly does this help ABC and CBS? Shouldn't they be out there trying to get a foothold in Google TV land, to fight off the threat of illegal sources by making the legal ones available, push out a few apps for the platform, and then perhaps make some deals with Google for ad revenue and the such. You know, gaining viewer loyalty, creating Internet hype, trying to expand the audience of your new shows, you know, the stuff they should be doing instead of a petty boycott of a new TV platform just because, despite Google's best attempts to reduce pirated content, that some may get through. I mean, ABC and CBS already have YouTube channels, and YouTube is well known to occasionally host pirated content, so why aren't they boycotting YouTube? The real issue may be that if people starting watching Google TV as a replacement for regularly TV (and you just know that this fits into the global domination plans of Google), then the traditional TV networks actually become content providers, while the only TV network is in fact, Google. Now that is a paradigm shift, and could be a threat to the traditional TV networks model, but it's up to them to work it to their advantage, not to whine about it. And aren't they only whining about it because they didn't think of it first?

Anyway, as I posted about in my TV Networks for the 21st Century blog post, the traditional TV network model won't survive for long, and things needs to change. People now want choice, want things on demand to fit their busier lifestyles, and traditional TV can no longer deliver this, not even with the help of TiVo. So it's not a time to resist change, but to embrace it and see how you can benefit from it. At least the Internet freedom advocates are innovating, with the Pirate Parties International detailing a plan to launch a "pirate balloon". I don't know about this, I think it could backfire. Imagine a balloon entering US air space, and the US Air Force determine that it's a threat to national security. BAM, the next thing you know, downloading pirated content is now a national security issue. I just hope they have enough room at Guantanamo for all the downloaders.

So the alternative to innovate is to litigate and legislate, and the MPAA has been busy on both fronts recently. This week, MPAA head Bob Pisano is in Japan promoting the merits of "Three-Strikes", calling it "forward-thinking", which makes sense coming from an organisation that has almost everything ass backwards these days. So the MPAA's "forward-thinking" plan is to just ban everyone from the Internet and go back to the time when, you know, when the Internet didn't exist? With these forward-thinkers in the likes of the MPAA, ABC and CBS, no wonder the piracy problem is as good as solved and piracy is in no way increasing in popularity or anything.

But the MPAA wasn't alone in promoting Three-Strikes this week, with one of the biggest proponents of the system, French President Sarkozy, also trying to hijack a Internet freedom conference to promote the agenda. That's right, hijacking a conference about freedom and speech and *against* Internet censorship by promoting his own Internet censorship plans. What's going on here? Is Sarkozy too cheap to host his own conference, that he has to, dare I say it, "steal" someone else's conference.

Scaring people way from piracy isn't going to work unless you can guarantee that you are capable of scare them, and that they're not going to move to a download service that is nice and encrypted and/or prevent Big Brother from finding out just exactly what was downloaded. And when (not if) that happens, what will the MPAA and Sarkozy suggest we do then?

One solution that has been used so far is some kind of piracy tax, where people are taxed for blank media purchased, on the assumption that they're using the blank media for piracy. It's not really fair on those that don't piracy, and I think it sends the wrong message, that since you've already "paid" for pirated goods, then go ahead, download as much as you can so you can fill up the DVD/Blu-ray with as much stuff as possible. For for businesses and non profits, this tax is insulting in more than one sense of the word, and it seems it's illegal too, at least according to the EU Court of Justice. The court has ruled that anyone other than private individuals should not be levied with the tax, since it's not fair to assume that these businesses and charities are all engaging in piracy. But is it really fair to label private individuals all by the same brush? Just because the problem is too complicated, in that it's impossible to determine who is pirating and who isn't, shouldn't give governments and courts justification in simplifying the problem by making *everyone* guilty. How would drivers reacts if they were hit with yearly mandatory fines, because you know, statistically, most will have broken some kind of road rules during the year? It should be the same with downloads.

There's bad news for copyright trolls everywhere, as newspaper copyright law firm Righthaven has lost a case, one of the thousands they filed. The judge ruled that Las Vegas realtor Michael Nelson's posting of 8 sentences of a 30 sentence newspaper article is considered fair use, especially when he also linked to the original article. But there's some confusion as to what has really happened, as it appears Nelson had settled the case with Righthaven. Did he settle too soon (and if he did settle, then why did the matter go to trial), or was this all part of the settlement deal? Who knows. But just because your industry is dying, it doesn't give you the right, nor will it help you, to pursue people who were enthusiastic enough to like your articles and link to them. Now, if they were just content scrapers, then okay, sue all you want, but at least allow them to post a sentence or two, perhaps even helping them out by providing the linking code with the snippet that you want others to use. I can talk all day about why the newspaper business if failing, but I think news in general is failing because there is now a lack of trust in the coverage being provided. The bias ridden, badly researched, deliberately misleading, simplified to the point of being totally pointless stories that we call news these days is very much responsible for the apathy people feel these days. When everything is a "gate", can something like the Watergate stories break again? I just don't think so. And yes, I've been watching season 5 of The Wire recently, how could you tell? Yeah, but let's just sue those that actually like our articles enough to link to them, that will work!

Jammie Thomas-Rasset is going back to court for the third time, this time to decide just how much in damages she should pay. The original controversial amount was $1.92 million, reduced to $54,000, and now the RIAA will try to increase this again to something "more reasonable", so they can use Thomas as an example to scare others into hiding their downloads a bit better or something.

In high definition news, the week ending 10th October was Blu-ray's second best week on record.

It was largely down to Iron Man 2, released the previous week, and Disney's Beauty and the Beast, with 20.58% of the market belonging to Blu-ray, just below the record set by the week Avatar was released.

However, and as I've noted in the analysis, and the subsequent posts, the numbers are slightly misleading, because you cannot say that 20.58% of all sales were for Blu-ray. This is because the numbers include all combos sold, and in Disney's case, they only release combos for the first month, so anyone wanting the DVD edition must buy the combo during these first few weeks. In fact, all combos are counted as Blu-ray sales only, even though they all include the DVD edition. And with studios pricing combos at only a few dollars more than the deluxe DVD edition (assuming one is even available), they're obviously subsidizing the combo version at the expense of DVD only versions. The fair solution would be to count combos separately, and this would also give us stat freaks another set of numbers to analyze to death (or at the very least tell us if consumers like combos or not).

But this isn't to say that Blu-ray hasn't been selling well, it has. A lot of titles are now dominated by the Blu-ray version, despite cheaper DVD versions being available (for example, Avatar on Blu-ray's has seldom had a market share less than 40%, despite actual Blu-ray penetration being at a much lower percentage). With Toy Story 3 and Inception coming in November and December respectively, the next couple of months should be huge for Blu-ray, even without combo related number cooking.

Not much happening in gaming except the NPD stuff. And the latest news is that Sony's PlayStation Move has "moved" over a million units, which isn't bad at all. Now it's Microsoft's turn with Kinect, and all signs point to it being a even bigger success (stories of the motion gaming device being sold out, and the Oprah endorsement can't have hurt when trying to penetrate the casual gaming market, just in time for Christmas too).

Anyway, that's the week that was. More next week, as we follow the adventures of Nicolas "Sarky" Sarkozy, and the crazy gang over at the MPAA, as they fight for what's good, and right in this messed up world of ours: the ability to kick people you don't like off the Internet. Until then, have a good one.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

October 24, 2010	FinalBurner Pro 2.24.0.235
October 24, 2010	FinalBurner Free 2.24.0.195 Freeware
October 24, 2010	Plex Media Center 0.9.10.0 Freeware
October 24, 2010	Visual AVCHD Time Stamp 1.0.2
October 24, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.9.4
October 24, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.23 Freeware
October 24, 2010	VideoLAN Movie Creator 0.2.0 pre-alpha Freeware
October 24, 2010	Jaksta 4.0.12
October 24, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.25.1282
October 24, 2010	rebox.NET 0.9.1.0 RC1 Freeware
October 23, 2010	All My Movies 6.0 build 1303
October 23, 2010	PopCorn MKV AudioConverter 1.83.2 Freeware
October 23, 2010	ProgDVB 6.48.4 Freeware
October 23, 2010	MediaCoder 0.7.5 Build 4755 Freeware
October 22, 2010	Windows 7 Codecs 2.6.6 Freeware
October 22, 2010	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.7.0 Freeware
October 22, 2010	Vista Codec Package 5.8.4 Freeware
October 22, 2010	BluffTitler 8.1.0.1
October 22, 2010	Subtitle Edit 3.0 RC2 Freeware
October 22, 2010	ChrisTV Professional 5.60
October 22, 2010	ChrisTV Standard 5.60
October 22, 2010	ChrisTV Lite 5.60 Freeware
October 22, 2010	Miro 3.5 Freeware
October 22, 2010	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.2.338
October 21, 2010	kmttg v0p7q Freeware
October 21, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2689 Beta Freeware
October 21, 2010	BurnAware Free Edition 3.0.7 Freeware
October 20, 2010	K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.5.0 Freeware
October 20, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.5.0 Freeware
October 20, 2010	Collectorz.com Movie Collector For Mac OS X 3.4.3
October 20, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 64-Bit 4.0.0 Freeware
October 20, 2010	BDtoAVCHD 1.2.1 Freeware
October 20, 2010	mkvWatch 1.0.0
October 19, 2010	MKVtools 2.4.2 Freeware
October 19, 2010	DVDRemaster Pro 6.4
October 19, 2010	DVDRemaster Standard 6.4
October 19, 2010	MP4Box 0.4.6 Rev 2125 Freeware
October 19, 2010	FFmpeg 0.6.1 Freeware
October 19, 2010	PlayClaw 2.0.0 build 1205
October 18, 2010	Smart Cutter Ps/Ts 1.3.0
October 18, 2010	The FilmMachine 1.6.2 Freeware
October 18, 2010	Comskip 0.80.036
October 17, 2010	WebM VFW Codec 1.0.0 Freeware
October 17, 2010	Ut Video Codec Suite 8.4.0 Freeware
October 17, 2010	Alive iPad Video Converter 1.2.0.6

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 220

2010-10-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 220

17 October, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

This is where I usually talk about the latest NPD analysis, and link to the analysis blog post, but NPD has decided to be Scrooge-like (and so close to Christmas!), and not release any unit sales figures anymore, so I'll have to make do with leaked and bootleged figures, hopefully with the analysis up sometime next week. Booooo.

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

Let's start this relatively quiet week with some bad news. It is very likely I will have to cease updating a long running feature here. Sorry to stop all of you from leaping for joy at the demise of the WNR, I'm sorry to say that's not what I'm posting about. Instead, it's the NPD US video game sales analysis, in its 38th monthly edition already, but it looks like 39th may very well never arrive. You see, NPD is no longer releasing hardware and software unit sales numbers, and this makes writing an analysis very difficult. Luckily, there may be some data leaks by manufacturers, publishers and other analysts with access to the NPD numbers, and when that happens, an analysis may still be posted. So far for this first month, there does seem to be some leaks, so the 39th NPD analysis may very well be posted early next week.

Anyway, let's start going over the news in this, as previously mentioned, relatively quiet week.

In copyright news, the Irish High Court has dealt a blow to the music industry's attempts to shift responsibility of online piracy unto ISPs.

The court ruled that provider UPC was not responsible for what users do on its network, as Ireland had not yet implemented the EU directive on copyright. The next step for the music industry is to cry to the government and get them to help stop the nasty ISPs from hurting their billion dollar profits, and I'm sure they'll find a sympathetic ear. As I've mentioned a billion times before, I don't get the argument of the record and movie industries. If ISP should be made responsible for subscriber downloads, then why not the phone company, as most downloads are still done via good old phone lines and exchanges. What about the companies that maintain the routers and switches for the Internet illegal traffic has to pass through their hardware eventually, so why not make them responsible too? So it's only the websites that host torrent files (which don't directly link to pirated content), the users who upload and download, and ISPs that the music/movie industries hold responsible (maybe Google and other search engines as well), but everybody else gets a free pass? Will hard-drive makers get sued too because they keep on making bigger hard-drives that are used to store pirated files? Where does the buck stop?

This is a question they can never answer, because the industry is passing on responsibility of fighting piracy to others, even though they are the only ones to benefit from any action taken. Governments can be lobbied take some of the responsibility, but other private companies are not just going to sit by idly and let the music/movie industries get away with it. And if the government, via new laws, make ISPs responsible, then what they are effectively doing is subsidizing the very profitable music and movie industries by taking money out of the Internet industry, just because one industry has a better lobbying organisation than the other. But I believe the saviour of the music/movie industry, if they need saving at all, will lie in the Internet domain, and so there's more reason for them all to work together, giving users more innovative solutions, as opposed to working against each other while fighting the futile fight against piracy, while consumers are the ones hurt by all of this (either the lack of innovation, or financial and legal consequences, even for those that don't pirate music and movies). But that's just me.

And speaking of companies not working together for the common good, more evidence this week that copyright law firms don't really respect copyright, as they steal (or allege others of stealing) from each other. The US Copyright Group is suing the Media Copyright Group for stealing their name, even though they have different names. This is after the USCG was caught earlier in the year stealing another copyright law firm's website design, and even earlier when UK copyright law firm ACS:Law accused of another UK copyright law firm of stealing their mailing templates. But I'm not surprised that these firms are suing for each other, or that some of them don't respect copyright. Because first of all, and just like the Scorpion and the Frog fable, it's in their nature to sue anyone and anything. And second of all, they don't respect copyright because their work means that they don't need to respect copyright, because it's all about the money. In fact, these law firms would have no business if piracy was stopped tomorrow, so it's actually in their interest for piracy to continue. Is it going too far to even suggest that these firms are making money off piracy? Well, all I know is that when home users download a torrent, and subsequently upload portions of it while they're downloading, they're not making a profit from the operations, other than saving the money of purchasing the content. Some torrent website may make some money through advertising, but overall, online piracy is one "industry" that's not really about making a profit unlike the industries that has sprouted up to combat it.

But if money is to be made from piracy or anti-piracy, then Google wants a piece of it too. Instead of giving in to movie studio demands to take responsibility for sites in its vast index (by this principle, Google may very well be responsible for all the world's ills at the moment thanks to all the websites it indexes. Except for News Corp sites. So that's one less evil Google is responsible for, I guess), it has suggested, shock horror, that studios may need to pay a little bit of money to reduce piracy and improve the studio's bottom line. I'm sure the studios are outraged at the suggestion that they would have to pay for actions that benefit only themselves. Crying to Congress about it may be their only hope!

An update on The Pirate Bay appeals case, it has now concluded and a decision is expected on November 26th. I have deliberately avoided covering this trial because I suspect there is only one outcome, and that the original verdict will be upheld. Or maybe I was just too lazy to keep track of it, I don't know.

Not much happening in HD/3D land, except that Iron Man 2's stats came out, and while it was impressive, it did not really outsell the likes of Avatar.

What the Blu-ray version did manage to do was to get more than 50% of the market share, not the first time this has happened, but the first time for such a high profile release during the first week of release. In other words, when Iron Man 2 became available at retail outlets, most people purchased the Blu-ray or Blu-ray/DVD combo version, as opposed to the DVD only version. While this may suggest that Blu-ray has now replaced DVDs as the dominant format, there are a couple of caveats to this stat. First of all, overall Blu-ray market share is still only around 10% to 15% (it was up to 18% for Iron Man 2 week), mainly because not all titles are release yet on Blu-ray, but largely because people are being very selective when buying Blu-ray editions, as opposed to DVD editions. It's all about the expected picture/audio quality I suppose.

Another important thing to note is that with the current pricing, it's very bad value to buy any of the DVD-only editions, especially if one plans to upgrade to Blu-ray any time in the next couple of years. The reason for this is that the Blu-ray single disc version of Iron Man 2 was only priced a single dollar more than the equivalent DVD-only edition. The Blu-ray/DVD combo was even better value, at only $2 more than the 2-disc DVD edition. Now, even if I didn't have a Blu-ray player, if the pricing differential was so insubstantial, I would never buy the DVD only editions. For $2 more, I can future proof my movie collection right now, and although I miss out temporarily on the extra features on the second DVD if I didn't have a Blu-ray player, in return, I get two copies of the same movie, as opposed to just one. At the end of the day, even if I didn't have a Blu-ray player, I still get to enjoy the movie on DVD and I will know that when I get a Blu-ray player, I won't have to re-buy the movie. Of course, I think what has happened is that people were buying the single disc DVD version, as opposed to the combo version, which works out to be around $8 in savings. Still, when the two disc DVD edition costs more than the cheapest Blu-ray version ($5 more), if this doesn't convince people to go and get a Blu-ray player, then I don't know what will. The consumers that aren't convinced will be difficult to convert into the Blu-ray cult, I think.

But Inception will be released in December, and I think that's will be the title to beat for 2010.

Sony has announced its range of Google TV supporting TVs and Blu-ray players. It's basically the tried and failed Internet TV platform, but now with a Google twist to make everything just a bit easier to use. Add the eventual support for the Android marketplace, and it can even become a surprisingly capable gaming platform for simple casual games. This convergence thing, that people, including me, were talking about years and years before, seems to be happening right in front of our eyes. Is a Sony TV with Google TV really just a TV, or a computer that can access the Internet, or a PVR that can record TV shows, or a games console? It only does everything, I suppose oops, wrong company's slogan.

And finally in gaming, as mentioned above, the lack of NPD stats make the NPD stats analysis feature a bit more difficult to write. But I have some experience in writing much about nothing, so maybe I'll manage.

But for September's figures, I think I will still be able to come up with an analysis because of some of the leaked numbers, which suggests the Xbox 360 won the month easily again, while both the Wii and PS3 were actually down compared to a year ago, 45 and 37 percent respectively. The PS3 numbers might surprise a few people, since it has seen huge year-on-year growth recently, but as I mentioned in the last few NPD posts, we're finally comparing apples with apples, or rather, slims with slims (whereas before, we were comparing the low priced slims with the high priced fats) and as I have been trying to explain, the recent PS3 sales figures aren't that impressive at all when you take this into account, and September's figure prove this point.

The other interesting fact was that Halo Reach sold more than 3.3 million copies, only the third title ever to sell more than 3 million copies in the first month (in the US) the other two are Modern Warfare 2, and the previous major Halo game, Halo 3. No specific figures were available for the Move, but the accessories sector grew compared to last year, the only one to do so, and this means the Move bundle probably sold well, but not well enough to have dragged the PS3 console sales any higher.

Anyway, I better stop writing before this turns into a fully fledged NPD analysis.

In other gaming news, Sony has a new way to combat the use of the PS Jailbreak device new games, such as the new Medal of Honor, will come with firmware updates that disable the device, and if you want to play these games, you are forced to install the firmware. A typically heavy handed action by Sony, but it will probably work. Until someone pirates a hacked version of MoH that won't require the new firmware, that is.

And that's it for this week. Not a lot of news as I mentioned, but hopefully enough to tide you over until next week. So until then

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

October 17, 2010	XBMC media center Dharma 10.0 Beta3 Freeware
October 17, 2010	kmttg v0p7p Freeware
October 17, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.17 Freeware
October 16, 2010	SGI's Video Converter 0.3.7 Freeware
October 16, 2010	LiVES 1.0.10 Freeware
October 16, 2010	Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder 6.0.2
October 16, 2010	Beyond TV 4.9.3
October 16, 2010	DVD PixPlay 6.13
October 16, 2010	ProgDVB 6.48.3 Freeware
October 15, 2010	HDConvertToX 3.0.691.4632 Freeware
October 15, 2010	GB-PVR 1.5.33 Beta Freeware
October 15, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.24.1259
October 15, 2010	HDPVR Capture 2.8.1 Freeware
October 15, 2010	AVS Video Converter 7.0.2.452
October 15, 2010	EMDB 1.19 Freeware
October 13, 2010	RAD Video Tools 1.9x Freeware
October 13, 2010	GOM Player 2.1.27.5031 Freeware
October 13, 2010	Splash 1.6.0 Freeware
October 13, 2010	VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264 4.20.5.607 Beta
October 13, 2010	MKVtools 2.4.1 Freeware
October 13, 2010	Camtasia Studio 7.1.0
October 13, 2010	AVStoDVD 2.3.2 Freeware
October 12, 2010	Replay Media Catcher 4.0.1.2
October 12, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.9.2
October 12, 2010	Subtitle Edit 3.0 RC1 Freeware
October 12, 2010	Ut Video Codec Suite 8.3.0 Freeware
October 12, 2010	Vegas Pro 10.0a
October 12, 2010	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1558 Beta Freeware
October 12, 2010	CCCP 2010-10-10 Freeware
October 11, 2010	MKVcleaver 0.5.0.1 Freeware
October 11, 2010	DVDStyler 1.8.2 RC1 Freeware
October 11, 2010	x264 r1745 Freeware
October 10, 2010	CamStudio 2.6 Beta r273 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 219

2010-10-10T04:47:00.000-07:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 219

10 October, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

Critics of the current 3D hype will say that people should wait for the glasses-free 3D TVs. Toshiba has now released their first, but it's unlikely to satisfy 3D critics with the small size and high price, not to mention the limited viewing angles and low resolution. We may have to wait for holographic TVs if we want a great, glasses-free 3D experience.

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2. Weekly News Roundup

Welcome to the 10/10/10 edition of the WNR. I'm always weary when writing dates, since different regions use different ordering and it's easy to confuse the day, month and year completely (which is why I always use the full name for the Month, and the year in four digits as per the title of this post), so it's good that, for one day of this year, I can throw caution to the wind and write the date anyway I want without any consequences. And to think, we only have two more years left of this, before we have to wait another another 89 years (think about it).

From my intro, you may have concluded that this was yet another quiet news week, hence the need to write gibberish. But there's actually a few things to go through, not much, but a few. So the gibberish was merely coincidental, and regular readers would surely have gotten used to the gibberish by now. So let's get started.

Starting with copyright news, we'll start with what was very late news last week, in that the controversial ACTA has reached a basic agreement, and there has been more analysis since then about the new draft (final draft?) of this agreement.

TorrentFreak reckons that the new ACTA draft now tries shoves much less crap down our throats than what is was earlier, so I guess that's good news. Ah, I remember like it was yesterday when I first heard of the ACTA, about how custom officials were going to search through my iPod looking for pirated songs, that ISPs were going to be forced to monitor all of our Internet usage just in case we do something the RIAA/MPAA don't want us to do, and that the island of Manhattan was going to be closed and fenced off like a giant prison, with all the caught copyright infringers sent there to fend for themselves (this last part may not be true). It seems that the current version of the ACTA is very much a watered down version compared to previous drafts, and I guess that's one positive of global politics, is that things rarely get done when so many countries are involved. Hurray for petty political bickering.

But even without a global treaty forcing countries to take copyright control seriously by building giant island prisons, some countries are taking action anyway. France is a pioneer in this field. The country that gave us the French Revolution, has now been sold to the highest corporate bidder, in this case, the joint bid from the music and movie industries, and France's Three-Strikes revolution has started. In case you've been living in a cave, or have had your Internet disconnected because you pirated one episode too many of Desperate Housewives (in which case, you would already know all about Three-Strikes, so skip the next half a sentence or so), the Three-Strikes systems give copyright infringers three chances to clean up their act before their Internet is disconnected. The first of the strikes has been sent out by HADOPI, and so the experiment begins. Will piracy stop? Or will people simply start using sources of pirated content that HADOPI can't monitor? And if the piracy rate drops, will the music and movie (and software) industry make more money? Only time will tell, but I suspect the only real effect will be the increasing amounts of anger experienced by the Internet public.

Which explains why Operation Payback, 4chan/Anonymous's global Internet attacks on those perceived to be on the wrong side of the great copyright crusade. I haven't even kept track of all the organisations that Operation Payback has targeted, I think their most recent target was in Spain, but as they "group" has proclaimed, the attacks will continue until they're less angry, and things like Three-Strikes won't really help in this respect.

Getting caught in the cross-hairs in all of this is fair use. There are many reasons why copyright should be respected, and there are also many situations where protecting the public interest is more important than protecting "potential" profits for copyright holders. The Library of Congress' National Recording Preservation Board has made a passionate plea for changes to the copyright law so cultural preservation, particularly for audio recordings, isn't being hampered by copyright holders too protective over their content. Due to the various laws and amendments made to the copyright act, giving copyright holders ever increasing power and time to hold on to their content, many recordings made early last century are in danger of failing to be preserved because copyright holders aren't releasing content that clearly has no commercial value any more. Some recorded vaudeville performance, for example, are destined to be lost forever as greedy copyright holders refuse to release recordings to the public domain, despite there being no market for such content since the 1930's. It's easy to forget that copyright laws were invented to protect the public interest, as much as the rightsholders, which is why copyright do expires, so content can fall into public domain and be preserved forever. DRM, another invention of copyright holders, may be even more harmful than any laws that exist. It's very much unlikely any DRM protected content can be decoded in some distant future. We don't even have to imagine that far to see how dangerous DRM can be, people who purchased content from one of the many failed online music stores that used DRM will know exactly how hard it is to recover their purchases, even after just a couple of years. Luckily, most DRM measures are fairly ineffective, and so easily breakable, but that won't always be the case.

So with the copyright crusade taking many victims, what exactly are the rightsholders trying to achieve? This week, we had MPAA execs come out and explain their reasoning for fighting piracy. Apparently, even the MPAA is aware that piracy cannot be eliminated, saying that "Piracy has always been and will always be with us". You see, the MPAA's aim is only to reduce it so much so that they "can make enough revenue in a legitimate market to recoup expenses and continue to make new movies". You see, behind the record profits, movie studios appear to be struggling to bring out movies, because it's hard to even recoup expenses at times. The proof is right here if we look hard enough, I mean there hasn't been a Saw movie since 2009, and who is to say six Saw films is really enough? Of course, movies like Inception are the "Exceptions", it's a real struggle for a lot of movies to make back the money that went into making them. You see the reason is that, simply, most of the movies that Hollywood produces are, how do I put it, crap! In the past, when people couldn't just download crappy movies, they actually had to pay for a ticket before walking out in disgust twenty minutes in, and this meant a lot more movies were able to "recoup expenses" and so allow studios to "continue to make new movies". And before people knew how to rip DVDs (that whole six month before people discovered you could break DVD's ineffectual CSS copy protection by simply breathing in its general direction), they may get tempted by the cover and buy the crappy movies, whereas now they can simply download it and delete it twenty minutes through in disgust, and hence provide no income at all to struggling studios, who are now forced to having to actually make good movies that people will want to pay to see, like The Dark Knight, Avatar and Inception. But Chris Nolan is only one guy, and who know when James Cameron will make another movie. So it's no surprise really that Uwe Boll's Far Cry was one for the first movies to get into the sue-for-settlement game, is it?

There must have been something in the water last week, because yet another victim of the piracy trade also came out to suggest that, maybe, piracy isn't the only reason for lost profits. Nintendo's CEO refused to blame piracy for lost Wii, DS sales, believing that good games will still sell regardless of piracy. Interesting. So people pay for good stuff, and pirate the not so good stuff? Who would have thunk it! The reality is that people who can't afford to buy will probably pirate, in which case no profit has been lost a result. There's only probably a very small minority that will always pirate, even if they can afford to pay. And so I think most of the revenue losses come from the fact that people are not buying things that are not worth the money being paid, and with so much good stuff out there competing for our hard earned dollar (even if it is worth less and less every day, if you're earning the US kind), buyers are a lot more picky. And piracy, rightly or wrongly, allows many to "sample" goods without having to feel cheated by paying for the full sticker price, and in most cases, the goods are as they suspected, not worth the money being asked for it. But producers will argue that without people buying the poor quality junk, then these purchases can't subsidize the cost of producing good quality stuff, and that's true. So some kind of balance has to be reached where perhaps producers can make the junk cheap enough to tempt us to go against our better judgement, while keeping the good stuff cheap enough so that not too many people fall into the "can't afford it, so must pirate it" category.

And an update on everyone's favourite newspaper copyright lawyers, Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle is ready to settle her Righthaven lawsuit which alleged that she posted some newspaper's articles without permission somewhere. It's a shame, I was hoping for a real legal battle, but I guess in the middle of an election campaign, that was never likely to happen.

In 3D/HD news, Iron Man 2 was released a short while ago and the figures suggest that it will be one of the best selling titles on Blu-ray ever, which is exactly what the format needed after a sluggish few weeks recently the stats will be posted on Tuesday at the usual place.

For 3D lovers, there was some exciting news this week as Toshiba released its first glasses-free 3D TVs. If you've read my earlier blog post/FAQ about 3D, you shouldn't be too surprised about glasses-free 3D TVs, but as I mentioned before, there are a lot of drawbacks to this technology currently. For example, the Toshiba 3D TVs only allow 3D effects from nine fixed viewing positions if none of these positions matches your sitting positions, then you can forget about the 3D effect. Now, new versions of the same technology is enabling greater number of viewing angles, I think I read somewhere one even offers 64 viewing positions, but for me, it's not so much finding a sweet spot, as staying there for the whole duration of the movie (and making sure you don't move your head too much). Of course for some, that may still be a better compromise than wearing dorky glasses.

Another problem, which the Toshiba releases make clear, is the cost of the technology. 3D effects rely on each eye seeing something different to trick our brains into thinking we're looking at something in 3D. Glasses work by quickly shuttering the LCD so that we're only seeing out of one eye at any one time (it's synced to the TV so that each eye is seeing that they're supposed to be seeing all of this is done very quickly so we don't notice that we're really only seeing out of one eye), but the image we see out of each eye will be the full resolution of the TV. However, with these glasses-free TVs, it relies on barriers that block out different pixels on the TV depending on the angle of your vision (with each eye seeing something different, because of the different viewing angles). This blocking of pixels means that each eye is not seeing the full resolution of the TV, and so in order to created an HD image, more pixels are needed than what is normally required. For the larger Toshiba 20? 3D TV, four times the number of pixels of a 1080p TV was needed to create only a 720p picture (essentially, the panel is a 2160p one, if my maths is correct), and this is why this small TV costs nearly $3000. Not only is the panel expensive to produce, the processor needed to manage this many pixels also needs to be powerful (Toshiba uses their Cell technology, the same processors that power the PS3).

But you see the problem now though. If it ever becomes cheap enough to produce 2160p TVs to make these 720p glasses-free 3D TVs affordable, then people will start to want 2160p 3D (or at the very least, 1080p 3D), which would already be possible then with 3D glasses. This, plus the viewing angle problem, means that there's still a lot of development needed for this technology. Although the smaller 12? model would definitely make a very cool digital photo frame.

And half way lodged between movies and gaming, PS3's Netflix will go disc free this month, with the PS3 Netflix app soon to be available meaning users of Netflix no longer has to insert the what must now be very worn Blu-ray disc into their PS3s to access Netflix's streaming service (as CrunchGear noted, it's extremely ironic that an online streaming service still required a disc to work).

And for those with money to burn in this economy, you can now pay Best Buy to upgrade your PS3's firmware. For $30, Best Buy's Geek Squad will press left on the PS3 controller until the "Settings" icon is highlighted, go down to "System Updates" option and press "X" for you. I know the US dollar worth less than the paper its printed on these days, but $30 is still $30. Yes, a firmware update is a bit more complicated than just pressing a bunch of buttons (but not much though), since you do need the PS3 to be connected online first, but I suppose people that want PS3s will probably know how to do that already. In any case, those buying PS3s as gifts for others may not know what the deal is, and so may pay for this just to have peace of mind, and I think that's probably the demographic Best Guy is going for. It is funny though reading through the list of "benefits" you get for your $30 I mean, you'd be crazy to not want the "system runs smoother" functionality. Joking aside though, if PS3 firmware updates are breaking the Blu-ray drive as some have claimed (or launched a class action lawsuit for), then maybe paying $30 isn't such a bad idea if Best Buy covers the cost of whatever happens due to a bad update (ie. the $150 Sony charges to fix the PS3 if something did go wrong).

Alright then, that's it for this week. I have it on good authority that, yes, there will be new events occurring next week in which an article will be written and published to inform the general public, and thus creating something called "news". And I shall do my best not to skip over the really important ones due to sheer incompetence and/or laziness. Have a good one.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

October 10, 2010	WinMPG Video Convert 9.1.7
October 10, 2010	Windows 7 Codecs 2.6.5 Freeware
October 10, 2010	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.6.9 Freeware
October 10, 2010	CCCP 2010-10-06 beta Freeware
October 10, 2010	HDPVR Capture 2.8.0 Freeware
October 9, 2010	K-Lite Video Conversion Pack 1.8.0 Freeware
October 9, 2010	Photodex ProShow Producer 4.5.2949
October 9, 2010	Photodex ProShow Gold 4.5.2949
October 9, 2010	ProgDVB 6.48.2 Freeware
October 8, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2667 Beta Freeware
October 8, 2010	SPlayer 3.5 Build 1552 Beta Freeware
October 8, 2010	Comskip 0.80.035
October 8, 2010	mkv avi to mp4 1.0.8 Freeware
October 8, 2010	VideoCacheView 1.80 Freeware
October 8, 2010	Preferred Filter Tweaker for Windows 7 3.7 Freeware
October 8, 2010	ffdshow Rev. 3611 (generic/x64) Freeware
October 8, 2010	VSO PhotoDVD 4.0.0.37
October 8, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.35.01 Beta Freeware
October 8, 2010	GOM Encoder 1.0.0.39
October 7, 2010	DVBViewer 4.5
October 7, 2010	MKVtools 2.4.1 Freeware
October 6, 2010	Miro 3.5.0 RC2 Freeware
October 5, 2010	madVR 0.34 Freeware
October 5, 2010	Mobile Media Converter 1.7.0 Freeware
October 5, 2010	Subtitle Edit 3.0 Beta 2 Freeware
October 5, 2010	PS3 Media Server 1.20 r412 Beta Freeware
October 5, 2010	Andy's FLV Join 0.5 Freeware
October 5, 2010	PlayClaw 2.0.0 build 1193
October 4, 2010	VOBMerge 2.55 Unofficial Freeware
October 4, 2010	Vista Codec Package 5.8.3 Freeware
October 4, 2010	XMedia Recode 2.2.7.7 Freeware
October 4, 2010	MPEG-2 Transport Stream packet analyser 2.2.0.3 Freeware
October 4, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.4.4 Update Freeware
October 4, 2010	RipBot264 1.16.3 Freeware
October 4, 2010	CDBurnerXP 4.3.7.2423 Freeware
October 4, 2010	PopCorn MKV AudioConverter 1.83.1 Freeware
October 4, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.22.1228

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 218

2010-10-03T02:40:00.001-07:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 218

3 October, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

Hollywood's latest solution, either to their money problems (ie. they did break the all time revenue record, but not by as much as they had wanted), or to the piracy one, is to show movies at $30 a pop. That's right, if you want to watch a movie after it finishes its theatrical run and before it gets released on DVD/Blu-ray, studios think that charging $30 per viewing is fair. Yes, I can definitely see people currently downloading movies free via BitTorrent all signing up for this $30 movie.

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2. Weekly News Roundup

There's a surprising amount of news to get through, most of them coming in the last few days, while previous week's news stories continue to provide the goods, which just goes to show that it's rather foolish to be overconfident in dealing with the Internet masses, because a train doesn't run you over when it's late, and coffee doesn't turn into acid over time (see Andrew Crossley remarks regarding Operation Payback, if you don't get the reference).

We'll start with the repercussions of Operation Payback, which should occupy a fair bit of the copyright section this week (and promises to occupy more of it in the following weeks, until Anonymous' anger subsides, if it subsides).

The leaked ACS:Law emails are still providing a wealth of information on how one of the most notorious copyright settlement firms operate. There was at first the details about just how much money have been made so far, and how much money is expected to be earned as more and more people fall foul of the settlement notices. As I noted last week, the entire business is motivated by money, which isn't necessary wrong, except there's very little emphasis on stopping piracy, apart from the side effects of these types of lawsuits. You get the feeling that if it was possible to somehow encourage piracy, so this little business can continue for a while longer, then some of the less reputable law firms may just do this. After all, if it's all about the money, then it will all end when people stop pirating stuff.

And as if to further proof the point I made above (or maybe the more likely explanation is that I made the point above so I can segue nicely into a new paragraph but I'm not that clever!), not only do certain law firms care little for actually stopping piracy, they themselves are engaging in it for their own commercial gain, which is way worse than people who can't afford to buy movies downloading pirated copies. Again, uncovered from ACS:Law's email archives, is a little incident involving another law firm, Tilly, Bailey and Irvine, which sought help from ACS:Law in regards to starting their own copyright settlement business. But instead of taking mailing templates and creating their own unique ones based on the ones provided, Tilly, Bailey and Irvine decided it would be easier to just use the templates without license. Geeze, it's easy to get caught in this piracy things isn't it? ACS:Law's Andrew Crossley, which has overnight become one of the most famous, or is that infamous, people in the Internet world, wasn't happy at TBI's actions, and I guess it was pretty silly for TBI to commit acts of copyright infringement against a copyright law firm.

What was more interesting though was that TBI ceased their copyright settlement operations after discovering the negative side of all that money the bad publicity. This is nothing news, as the father of copyright settlement law firms in the UK, Davenport Lyons, also quit from the game for the same reasons. TBI mentioned that the extra resources needed to deal with the bad publicity took them by surprise a bit, even though it really shouldn't. This could point to a way to fight off the copyright settlement vultures, because while not all care about bad publicity, some do and public pressure can be effective. Most of these law firms practice traditional law as well, and if their copyright settlement stuff is hurting their other business, then that may make them think twice.

Which may be why the law firm Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver created the US Copyright Group, as to separate their copyright settlement stuff from the rest of their work. It's not really working though, not if you consider the bomb threat they received this week, which luckily turned out to be a false alarm. With the economy the way it is, people don't need a mass mailing telling them to pay up hundreds and thousands of dollars for a movie that costs less than ten, and it's understandable some people may just go too far. Also, the irony of their association with the movie The Hurt Locker, could point to just a prank. But this isn't stopping the USCG, as they filed more Doe lawsuits this week, for two more movies. Low Orbit Ion Cannons and bomb threats can't stop the USCG, although some judges can, and this week, the USCG had to deal with a small setback in one of their `Hurt Locker' lawsuits. The reason is not important, it was a jurisdiction problem, but it does show that the court is not always on the USCG's side, and that the growing public anger may in fact make judges examine the USCG's case (or lack of one) a bit more carefully in the future.

Back to Operation Payback for a moment, it is still very much going on, with many more firms and organisations being targeted, including one here in Australia (the AFACT). The effectiveness of the LOIC as a DDoS tool is debatable, since it's apparently easy block, but the successful attacks so far have been from sympathizing groups and individuals, it appears. The ACS:Law email leak is still so far the crowning achievement of the operation, although it very much happened by accident. If we can put aside the debate about the legality of such protest actions, the message is clear though. People don't like the way they've been treated in this copyright crusade. and they're speaking out. They no longer want to be just labelled a "criminal" and treated, by governments and groups like the MPAA/RIAA, as if their concerns are not legitimate. And even criminals have rights, rights that our governments have been too eager to give away to protect the interests of the rich and powerful entertainment lobby. There are real reasons why piracy is rampant, and it may not even have anything to do with pirated goods being cheap or free. If we believe the copyright holder's argument that they are losing money to piracy, then it means that people who can afford to pay are not, and are deciding to choose something that's illegal and dangerous instead. But then if the reality is that the people downloading are the ones that can't afford to pay, then what is actually lost by the copyright holders? And if it's because pirated content is easier to get hold of then paid for content, then who is to blame for this? Pirates for making things too easy, or copyright holders who makes things too hard for consumers? If there is to be a debate on copyright, these are the issues that need to be examined. And maybe, just maybe, a solution can be found.

And now back to the lawsuits. The newspaper copyright trolling continues with Righthaven hitting a fairly large target this time. Left wing political forum Democratic Underground has been hit by such a lawsuit, when supposedly one of their users posted an article from one of the newspapers that Righthaven represents. But if Righthaven was expecting a prompt payment of the settlement fee, then they may need to think again when suing an Internet, political savvy opponent, which has since brought the EFF to help out with their defence and counter-suit. Democratic Underground, as a forum, should have protection under the DMCA's safe harbor provision because they do have strict rules in regards to copyright, but I suspect they will go beyond this technical defence and question the very nature of these types of lawsuits when it comes to preventing freedom of speech, which is exactly what a political forum provides. But the DMCA is actually an issue, because normally, the newspaper in question can request an article to be removed by filling a simple DMCA notice, but obviously, there's no profit in that. With the rate ads are paying (ie. not much), one can argue that newspapers are not losing much at all when people copy their articles verbatim (but usually with a link to the original article), but the positive effects of having their work publicized and if the link to the original article has been posted, the positive effects in terms of search engines, which bring in more people to their website, should all be considered. Which is why before Righthaven, newspapers often requested full articles to be removed, but were happy with excerpts and definitely happy with links to the original article. But the settlement fees earned means that it's much more profitable to sue, than to reason. In any case, I expect Democratic Underground to put up one hell of a fight, with assistance from the EFF, and if I was Righthaven, I would regret very much regret picking such a target instead of some poor blogger.

The EFF has had a minor victory this week too, forcing the proposed Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act to be delayed in the Senate, after they organized 87 prominent Internet engineers and pioneers to write an open letter attacking the act. Apparently, what the government is proposing, in order to help out their music and movie studio buddies, may actually break the entire Internet. Which is just exactly what you would expect from them really, and I mean both sides of politics, and like puppy dogs, they're all competing with each other to earn the attention of their masters. If there was some place where they could fire a nuke at, to stop online piracy, they would have done it already, it's what I'm getting at. So while the US Senate was busy doing what it does best, which is to do nothing, the controversial ACTA treaty reached a significant milestone with a basic agreement being reached, which may force the Senate's hands (not that they need any forcing).

And The Pirate Bay appeals trial started this week too, after delays over accusation of bias. Well, when before you even start the trial, the judges have already had accusations of bias aimed at them, and none of them recused themselves, then that's not really a good start, and I don't expect any positive result. But on the other hand, any negative result probably won't affect TPB's operations anyway, so what's the point really.

And from the same people that wanted phone ring-tones to be considered a form of public performance, the ASCAP which represents composers and publishers, has tried to get a court to say that a download is also a public performance, despite downloads not making any noise apart from the "ding" when it completes (depending on your browser/settings). The court denied their "ring-tone" arguments, and they denied their download arguments too. If I was a member of the ASCAP, I would be embarrassed at their actions, going out and making an ass of themselves in court. The ASSCAP perhaps? If they get their way, pretty much, even humming a tune would be a public performance, and eventually, even thinking about a song may be mean having to pay royalties.

Moving onto 3D/HD news. The news this week was that Blu-ray penetration has reached 17%. There has been some pretty poor stats recently for Blu-ray sales in the US at least, but I'm not surprised at this figure at all.

But whether this 17% can be turned into 80/90%, or whatever DVDs have, that's another question. Without top new releases, Blu-ray hasn't been growing as fast as previously, but with the best titles coming thick and fast in the next few month, that could change. I'm still mostly confused as to the intentions of studios when it comes to Blu-ray. Do they want it to completely replace DVDs, and then suffer the same problem as DVDs in terms of ever dropping revenues (until Purple-Ray or whatever next comes out), or are they positioning Blu-ray as a complementing format to DVDs, one that is sold at a premium to slow down the decline of movie prices? With current pricing, it seems studios want Blu-ray to completely replace DVDs (for example, the Iron Man Blu-ray+DVD combo can be had for less than the two disc DVD set at some places, or only a couple of dollars more elsewhere), because the premium is shrinking to the point where it doesn't exist for many titles. On the other hand, not all titles are being released on Blu-ray, so it seems studios are not that keen on Blu-ray totally replacing DVDs.

3D Blu-ray will probably up the pricing a bit, or at least that's what studios hope will happen. But in time, it too will drop in price to the point where 3D editions will be included with the standard 2D release. So it seems to me that getting people to pay more for the same stuff isn't a long term solution, but perhaps getting people to buy more for less per item may be the way to go.

Or you can just charge $30 per movie and hope someone is stupid enough to pay for it. That's Hollywood's new plan, after they got the FCC to agree to break analogue outputs, so they can release movies faster to the home, before it's available on Blu-ray/DVD. It's basically another release window, this time delivered without a disc, but most likely heavily DRM infested. And it appears to be for a single viewing only. I talked about solutions to the piracy problem further up in this WNR, but if this is the solution (analogue DRM + stupidly high pricing + more DRM), then they really need to stop coming up with them. You can see how they think this might work too $30 is less than what a family pays to watch the movie at the cinemas, but more than what they would pay for the Blu-ray/DVD. Or they can just download it for free, without the DRM too. You see where the problem is?

And finally in gaming, Nintendo thinks it may have found the solution to the piracy problem on the DS the upcoming 3DS will have new anti-piracy updates that happen automatically in the background, any time the DS is connected online.

While I believe the innovations offered by the 3DS, that is the glass free 3D screen, will be enough to ensure it sells extremely well when it is released early next year, I don't really think the anti-piracy features will really stop piracy. I'm sure some hacker somewhere is already salivating at the prospect of disabling the 3DS's automatic updates, and open up the portable console to mass piracy like that experienced by the DS.

But even despite the piracy, the DS sells quite a few games, and it's a good earner for Nintendo. It's just not as a good earner as the piracy stats suggests. But I think Nintendo's biggest problem isn't flash carts, but smart phones. While DS games are mostly still longer, phone games are becoming more sophisticated, and sometimes, people only want to play a short game. And certainly, the price is more appealing. And the range of games, especially on the iPhone, makes the DS range of games look pitiful by comparison, and all the big game studios have already signed up to produce games for the iPhone (and soon to Android I think), not to mention the many indie game producers. So what Nintendo needs is to open up an apps space for the DS, one that allows indie producers to have a go as well, so homebrew doesn't have to be confined to illegal flash carts. An online marketplace with cheap games will help keep things fresh, and I think Nintendo will be surprised how much more people spend when they're only paying a buck or two for games most likely more sales than if games were prices at ten times this price. Micro-transactions are the future.

That's all I'm going to write this week. I suspect next week will be quite boring as the Internet media rehash most of the interesting stories from this week over and over again. Look at me, I'm already making excuses

******************************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

October 3, 2010	Ut Video Codec Suite 8.2.1 Freeware
October 2, 2010	VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264 4.20.5.606 Beta
October 1, 2010	MediaPortal 1.1.1 Freeware
October 1, 2010	Magix Movie Edit Pro 17
October 1, 2010	ProgDVB 6.48 Freeware
October 1, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.21.1222
October 1, 2010	MP4Box 0.4.6 Rev 2080 Freeware
October 1, 2010	DVD Swarm 1.1.10.930 Freeware
October 1, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.9.0
October 1, 2010	CDBurnerXP 4.3.7.2420 Freeware
September 30, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2646 Beta Freeware
September 30, 2010	Comskip 0.80.034
September 30, 2010	DVBViewer 4.5 RC2
September 29, 2010	Cinema Craft Encoder SP3 1.0.5.1
September 29, 2010	MediaLink 2.05
September 29, 2010	Connect360 3.43
September 29, 2010	MKVExtractGUI-2 2.2.1 Freeware
September 29, 2010	EMDB 1.18 Freeware
September 29, 2010	Youtube Downloader HD 2.2 Freeware
September 28, 2010	Collectorz.com Movie Collector For Mac OS X 3.4.2
September 28, 2010	Windows Essentials Codec Pack 3.1 Freeware
September 28, 2010	x264 r1732 Freeware
September 28, 2010	Plex Media Center 0.9.0.21 ever-hotter-fixer Freeware
September 27, 2010	DeVeDe 3.16.9 Build 6 (Windows) Freeware
September 27, 2010	BDtoAVCHD 1.2.0 Freeware
September 27, 2010	TS-Doctor 1.0.67 Freeware
September 26, 2010	AVIAddXSubs 9.9 Freeware
September 26, 2010	DVDINFOPro 6.515
September 26, 2010	Mp3tag 2.46c Beta Freeware
September 26, 2010	CCCP 2010-09-25 beta Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 217

2010-09-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 217

26 September, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

War broke out this week, when the Low Orbit Ion Cannot struck several targets in the US and UK. Sounds like a plot of the latest Command & Conquer game, but alas, this is all happening for real as the MPAA, RIAA, ACS:Law and soon, the US Copyright Group, scramble for cover. A tip though for them though - when you make backups of your emails, don't put them online, okay?

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

We're nearly in the final quarter of the year. 2010 seems to have gone by quickly, hasn't it? I've actually avoided trying to use the "time has gone by quickly hasn't it" line for most of this year, but since we're nearly in the final stretch, and I've run out of things to say for this intro, so I thought, why not?

Despite my lack of material for the intro, there's actually quite a bit of news this week, so let's get started.

We'll start with what was a very busy week for copyright related news. It seems genuine war has broken out, in cyberspace at least, with 4chan/Anonymous' cyber attacks continuing against targets of opportunity in Operation Payback.

Since the initial attacks on AiPlex (the company that was the straw that finally broke the camel's back, when they admitted to attacking BitTorrent websites with DDoS attacks) and the MPAA, has since expanded to the RIAA and UK law firm ACS:Law (infamous for being one of the first law firms to take advantage of "suing for pre-trial settlement"). It's unknown how long Operation Payback will last, and how many other targets are part of the attack (you would think the server admins of the US Copyright Group's website should be very much on edge at the moment). Now there is the legal issue to consider, in that these DDoS attacks may be breaking laws all over the place. But then as one commentator pointed out, many kinds of protests break laws, but when people are pushed so far, then there will always be some kind of reactions. And besides, AiPlex started it first, many will feel. The fact is that corporations, governments and law firms have colluded with each other to take away our rights and to target all of us and label us all criminals, and so the reactions was always coming. And it appears that the attack isn't only coming from 4chan's Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), but that others with access to their own botnets are joining in the attack, and actually contributing more to the attacks than the easily blockable LOIC attacks.

But one unexpected result from Operation Payback came from when ACS:Law relocated their website to a new server to get out from under the attack. The website admins that made the move may have inadvertently left the backup files, used to make the move, on a publicly accessible part of the server, and it wasn't long before it was downloaded, and distributed, ironically, on the BitTorrent network (first uploaded to The Pirate Bay). Amongst the passwords, source code, were ACS:Law's email archives, a goldmine of behind of the scenes information on a law firm's relentless quest to sue downloaders and recoup large amounts of money (and also some personal emails). It has been an absolute disaster for ACS:Law. I haven't personally gone through all the emails, but this is about the worst thing that could happen for ACS:Law, as all of their dirty little secrets are revealed to the world. From the bragging about just how much money has been made ("May go for a Lambo or Ferrari", as posted by owner Andrew Crossley when boasting about improved finances), to emails that try to convince copyright holders to sign up by promising big piles of cash at the end of the pre-trial settlement rainbow, to how it is decided when to drop a claim (against 70 year old pensioners) or whether to proceed to the next step (based on "action points", that chart the progress of a claim). Many websites are still going through the mountain of information and I'm sure more will be uncovered. Website TorrentFreak's conclusion is that all of the emails seems to be talking about money, none actually about stopping or reducing piracy, and that's exactly why people take offence at the actions of law firms like ACS:Law and USCG, because for them, this is all about the money. Being a law firm though, I wonder what actions ACS:Law will take to get these very sensitive emails taken down, but so many people have downloaded it now, it will be impossible to stop the spread of information.

A lot of ACS:Law's actions were against people downloading pirated porn, like one email which alleged that a married man had downloaded pirated gay porn, which caused untold distress to family members no doubt. The reason these law firms go after these kinds of downloads is because they're so embarrassing, that nobody wants to fight them, especially in court, although thanks to legal advice freely available online, many are putting up more of a fight than before. In any case, suing for porn still remains more lucrative than suing for mainstream music or movie downloads. And a new firm in the US been created that target only pirated porn. The company, name XXX Copyrights, has already filed 7 lawsuits with more than 5000 individuals probably being named (so far, just John Does). The only thing that surprises me about this development is that it took so long for someone to do exactly this. With the US being such a litigious society, I am actually quite disappointed that this "brilliant" idea originated in Europe. Hang your heads in shame, Ambulance Chasers of America.

But with porn lawsuits proving to be a good earner, Righthaven's pursuit of penniless bloggers seems all a bit pointless. And it's proving more difficult than going after music and movie downloaders too, because the bloggers that copy newspaper articles are not doing so for profit or personal gain, and it seems the courts are a little bit more reluctant to provide summary judgements. There's also the issue, as argued by blogger Jan Klerks, that newspapers encourage its online readers to share and link to the original article, and so there may be an implied license being granted to bloggers who seek to repost the article, but complete with a link back to the original article. Judge Navarro, presiding over the case, seems to agree that at the very least, these are valid arguments that should be examined in a full trial, and Righthaven's task of extracting pre-trial settlement fees has just gotten a bit harder because of the Judge's decision.

We'll come back to the US in a minute, but let's first cross the Atlantic and to France, Europe, where citizens will soon start to receive the very first strike of their three-strikes. The government agency responsible for handling three-strikes, Hadopi, will soon start sending out the first warning letters, if it hasn't done so already. We know this because it has already requested subscriber information from several ISPs, and many have already replied. And once the letters go out, and this whole three-strikes business becomes more real to a lot of people, perhaps there will be some kind of change in people's attitudes towards movie piracy. Or at least that's what the government hopes will happen. I'm sure it has originally wanted just the threat of three-strikes to be enough to strike enough fear into people to drop the piracy rate, but the rate actually went up after the introduction of the law, as people moved off BitTorrent and onto other sources of pirated content that Hadopi may have difficulty tracking. And I suspect this latest development will just push more people into services that Hadopi can't get to, and that's a bad development for those serious about protecting copyright online.

But back to the Americas, this time to Mexico, where a group fighting the controversial ACTA treaty has had a meeting with the Mexican government to talk about the treaty negotiations, a meeting which was attended by the MPAA as well. What was strange though was one question the MPAA put forward, in which they asked whether the ACTA would allow "damaging" websites like Wikileaks to be shut down. It was a strange question, but one can only imagine the MPAA asked it because it has plans to shut down quite a few "damaging" websites, including no doubt The Pirate Bay. If the ACTA actually allows government to silence critical voices like Wikileaks, then I really fear for the future of democracy and free speech, and perhaps again highlights how biased copyright laws have become, that government can use it as an excuse to silence dissent.

But even without the ACTA, the government are doing plenty to help out the MPAA. The new proposed "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act", introduced in a bi-partisan manner in the US senate, gives law enforcement even more power to combat online piracy. The specifics of the act isn't important, but it's just the idea that combating online copyright has now become the responsibility of the Justice Department (aren't they already quite busy with, like, real crimes and stuff?), as opposed to being the responsibility of copyright holders, turning what is normally a civil matter into a criminal one. It's basically using tax payer funds to protect the business interests of billion dollar corporations, while disguising the effort as "protecting American jobs". Every industry provides jobs, even the online piracy industry, so why should music labels and Hollywood get special protection? And before you blame any political party, both of them are quite vocal in their support of these corporations, so we, as the people, as pretty much voiceless. Which is why the Low Orbit Ion Cannon has to do what it has to do

And more victory for YouTube as it won a case in Spain which mirrors the Viacom judgement handed to them earlier in the year. So copyright holders will have to work a bit harder and actually go after the people who uploaded unauthorised clips, as opposed to the nice, big target of YouTube/Google. Nobody say anti-piracy was easy.

Let's move onto 3D/HD news. The big news for the week was that the PS3 3D Blu-ray firmware has been released, and suddenly, many many more people now have a Blu-ray player capable of playing 3D movies, if and when they are ever released en mass.

So how does the PS3 perform as a 3D Blu-ray player? It does pretty well, but there are some limitations. The biggest one is that you won't be able to play a 3D Blu-ray movie and also output Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD-MA audio in bitstream mode. The reason is that because the PS3's HDMI port is not version 1.4, it has to do some software trickery to enabled the output of frame packed 3D content, and this trickery basically means bitstreaming is out. Of course, those with PS3 Fats, like me, don't have bitstreaming anyway, so nothing lost there. But apparently, the silver lining in this means 3D can work through HDMI 1.3 equipment, such as HDMI splitters and receivers, but I can't confirm or deny whether this is the case or not.

The other limitation is that when you press the "triangle" button to bring up the PS3 playback options, 3D is disabled/flattened. Standalone 3D Blu-ray players don't suffer from this, and their overlay menus are sometimes in 3D as well. It's kind of annoying, but just how many times do people bring up the playback options during playback is debatable.

Otherwise, 3D Blu-ray output is as good as any standalone 3D Blu-ray player, and response times as as quick as ever on the PS3, and I never believed those stories which said the PS3's powerful cell processor couldn't handle 3D Blu-ray (and yet the low powered standalones could?).

But 3.50 is apparently more than just about 3D Blu-ray, but not in a good way. The firmware update disables the majority of third party, unauthorized controllers and USB devices, and apparently introduces a few issues with playing back non 3D Blu-ray titles such as Sunshine.

Not much happening in gaming this week, so I'll skip it. Although I will mention Sony's attack on Microsoft for having only one genre of exclusive games, most likely a dig at yet another hit on the Xbox 360, Halo Reach, being yet another shooter. But I think Microsoft will probably be the first to agree with Sony's assessment, since they're trying to expand their range of experiences with games like Alan Wake, and of course, the whole Kinect platform. Meanwhile, Sony is spending a lot of efforts promoting the Move as a great way to play, you guessed it, shooters.

In any case, Halo Reach will ensure Microsoft wins September again as the most popular console (in the US at least), taking a lot of thunder away from the launch of Move. And this is before Kinect is even close to release, in early November. Although some of the claims being made by Microsoft (and its employees), such as comparing Kinect to the iPad or pulling a random large number out of the air when talking about potential sales, are a bit over the top, if not downright strange.

Anyhoo, that's the week. Have a good one, and watch out of the LOIC.

******************************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

September 26, 2010	Windows 7 Codecs 2.6.4 Freeware
September 26, 2010	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.6.8 Freeware
September 26, 2010	MediaLink 2.04
September 26, 2010	Connect360 3.42
September 25, 2010	Plex Media Center 0.9.0.21 Hotfix Freeware
September 25, 2010	VDownloader 2.10.509.2
September 25, 2010	Burn4Free 5.1.0.0
September 25, 2010	Free AVCHD Editor 0.3.1.113 Freeware
September 25, 2010	Cyberlink PowerDVD 10.0.2113
September 25, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.8.7
September 25, 2010	TMPGEnc MovieStyle 1.1.3.55
September 25, 2010	SolveigMM AVI Trimmer 2.0.1009.24 Beta Freeware
September 24, 2010	madVR 0.32 Freeware
September 24, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.16.1183
September 24, 2010	VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264 4.20.5.604 Beta
September 24, 2010	ImageGrab 5.0.6 Freeware
September 23, 2010	Collectorz.com Movie Collector For Mac OS X 3.4.1
September 23, 2010	Collectorz.com Movie Collector 7.1.2
September 23, 2010	MP4Box 0.4.6 Dev (20100921) Freeware
September 23, 2010	Photodex ProShow Producer 4.5.2929
September 23, 2010	Photodex ProShow Gold 4.5.2929
September 23, 2010	BurnAware Free Edition 3.0.6 Freeware
September 22, 2010	DVD PixPlay 6.12
September 22, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.4.2604 Beta Freeware
September 22, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.15 Freeware
September 21, 2010	D2MP 4.23 Freeware
September 21, 2010	HC (HCenc) 0.25 Freeware
September 21, 2010	XMedia Recode 2.2.7.2 Freeware
September 21, 2010	Smart Cutter Ps/Ts 1.2.9
September 21, 2010	EMDB 1.14 Freeware
September 21, 2010	VideoCacheView 1.78 Freeware
September 20, 2010	StaxRip 1.1.7.0 Beta Freeware
September 20, 2010	DVDStyler 1.8.2 beta 4-1 Freeware
September 20, 2010	x264 r1724 Freeware
September 20, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.34.11 Beta Freeware
September 20, 2010	PopCorn MKV AudioConverter 1.83.0 Freeware
September 20, 2010	Comskip 0.80.033

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 216

2010-09-19T05:23:00.000-07:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 216

19 September, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

The PlayStation Move has been launched, overshadowed somewhat by Halo Reach, but early impressions are pretty good, and the starter kit can be had for relatively cheap, even here in Australia. Let's see how Nintendo responds.

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

And so another week is upon us. Not much news this week though, but there was one big breaking story, which we'll get to soon enough. The PlayStation Move has been released since I last posted, and there's a bit more on that in the gaming section, although I do plan on writing a short little comparison between the Move and Kinect, or rather, why a direct comparison between the two motion gaming accessories is a bit silly, and that one doesn't necessarily have to lose in order for the other to win (unfortunately, the Wii loses in either scenario).

In copyright news, the big news of the week I alluded to earlier is that HDCP, the copy protection scheme we've all learned to love, is dead.

It was short lived, we hardly knew thee, but HDCP copy protection has been cracked, with the master key posted on Twitter of all places. People at first were sceptical, but a few days later, we had confirmation from Intel, the company that developed HDCP, that, yes, the posted key was in fact the legitimate master key. So what does the master key do? Well, it the way HDCP works, it allows legitimate source keys (keys for things like Blu-ray players) and sink keys (keys for receiving devices, mainly TVs and monitors) to be generated, and therefore it means that there is no way now to tell the difference between authorised devices, and unauthorised ones, thus killing HDCP as a viable DRM scheme. Well some articles screamed that "Blu-ray copy protection has been killed", it isn't quite that simple. Yes, Blu-ray players rely on HDMI and therefore HDCP copy protection, but the disc itself is still protected by several other layers of DRM, including AACS. However, it will now be possible to intercept the HDMI output and get access to the raw digital stream to make copies of the movie, although that will require a bit of hardware ingenuity, although something could be done in software too. Those around when DVD ripping first came onto the scene will remember Power Ripper, the tool that used PowerDVD's screen capture tool to rip DVDs, frame by frame. Since then, many DRM schemes have protected this sort of ripping by disabling screen capture or encrypting the path from software to screen. But with HDCP out of the way, this kind of ripping may be possible again (and this time, since HDMI carries audio too, the whole stream can be riped). Of course the question is why would anyone want to do this when there are much easier ways to rip Blu-ray movies? But there are also other applications other than ripping, such as allowing movies to still be played via HDMI even when the TV's HDCP chip has died.

But the most important aspect of this leak of the master key is that it confirms once again relying on technical measures to prevent piracy is an extremely naive strategy. There are people that crack HDCP for fun, and it doesn't matter if it takes a month, or 5 years, they have the time! Now, Intel has hinted that since the technical protection is all but gone, they may rely on legal protection to keep HDCP viable. After all, it's worked for DVD's CSS, which has been cracked since 1999 and yet it's still widely in use today, largely thanks to the legal protection it, and any DRM scheme (no matter how weak), offers (thanks to the DMCA). But even legal protection won't stop people doing things that annoys rightsholders, once the technical barriers have been removed. So HDCP will still be around, and all your TVs and Blu-ray players will use it, but once again, you have to ask, what's the point? Having some crappy DRM in there makes lawsuits simpler, but copyright infringement is copyright infringement, it doesn't really matter to the court if DRM has been broken once, a hundred times, or that DRM didn't exist at all. And when the DRM negatively impacts on legitimate customer's user experience, then one should wonder if this is a fair deal, that legitimate customers have to pay dearly just to give rightsholders a false sense of security (but I guess a false sense of it is better than nothing, which is why companies are still paying a lot of money to license DVD's CSS).

Technical, legal ways to fight piracy has obviously failed, and continues to demonstrate how it fails every single day, whether it's HDCP, or France's Three-Strikes, or multi-million dollar settlements being thrown out of court for being unconstitutional. The common sense approach would then to be to find another way to fight piracy, perhaps a way where rightsholders can get loyal customers to join their battle, no, not by paying out rewards for dobbing your friends and family, but by making sure that paying customers want to stay paying customers because they are treated right. So right that even those that aren't paying would start to envy those that are paying, and would do so if they could afford it. Whether this means making the whole experience so much easier than going out and obtaining the pirated version, or if it means more exclusive content and experiences that cannot be pirated, or even just making the price so reasonable that, it makes it not worthwhile to pursue pirated content. I firmly believe such a solution is possible, and in the end, everyone will benefit.

Or you can just launch DDoS attacks on BitTorrent websites. But if you use less than ethical and possibly illegal tactics, then don't be surprised if the response is of a similar nature. Last week, I mentioned the story of an Indian based anti-piracy firm, AiPlex, who appeared to have owned up to launching DDoS attacks on BitTorrent website. So this week, a group from 4chan, called Anonymous, have decided that the right response is to DDoS AiPlex's website. And attack they did, bringing the entire website down for hours. And not only that, they decided to attack the MPAA website too, also bringing it down for several hours. Both websites appear to be back up again this afternoon, after having changed IP addresses, but it's unknown at this point if the attacks will continue (both sites appear to be slowing down again, which could signal the start of a new attack, or just that I have a crappy Internet connection). Now, I don't think many people will condone DDoS and similar attacks, but that's exactly why people were shocked to discover that AiPlex had resorted to such actions in the first place.

Over to the UK, Internet users over there will soon have to pay to be spied on by their ISPs, so the profits of record companies and other rightsholders can be protected. The government has announced that ISPs will have to foot 25% of the cost of anti-piracy operations, with the rest of the 75% being the rightsholder's responsibility. You would think that rightsholders, you know the multi-billion dollar music and movie industries, would be happy with this arrangement, but they're not. They had wanted ISPs to foot all of the bill, to even pay for the investigation part of the operation, and so wanted to contribute nothing in order to gain all the benefits. I should be surprised, but I'm not, because these are industries that are out there blaming everyone else for problems of their own creation (by that I mean not moving quickly enough to satisfy user needs, so the users found something better, cheaper).

Let's move onto 3D/HD news. The good news is that the PS3 should be able to play 3D Blu-ray movies by this time next week, as apparently the "delayed" 3D Blu-ray firmware is now going to launch on time, on September 21st.

There's very little detail about the exact implementation, so there's all sorts of rumours on 3D Blu-ray being a bit more limited on the PS3 than compared to dedicated 3D Blu-ray players. One of the rumours suggest that when 3D is being played, BD-J/Java based menus can't work at the same time. I find this highly unlikely though, since the PS3 has to still be the most powerful Blu-ray player out there (how many other Blu-ray players can do 1080p 3D rendering?). Another earlier rumour suggests that due to the older version HDMI on the PS3, especially the fat one, that 3D Blu-ray will not be full 1080p. This sounds more likely, but I think Sony has already refuted this suggestion. Anyway, we'll know more in a few day's time.

But while the update means the number of 3D Blu-ray players around the world has just jumped up quite a bit instantly, the number of 3D Blu-ray movies, on the other hand, is still barely above double digits. One problem many have noticed is that most of the movies released are tied to hardware, usually 3D TVs, and most are not available for general sale. Sometimes like 60% of the movies released or announced for release so far are this types of exclusives, including the big one, Avatar. And some say this will kill off the 3D Blu-ray format before it begins. I'm not sure I agree. Yes, the exclusive releases are an annoyance, it means many 3D Blu-ray owners, like myself, have access to a very limited number of movies (for me, I only have just the one). However, this is just the effect of the hardware-before-content model that 3D Blu-ray has adopted. And this causes the lack of content means manufacturers are even more protective of whatever content they can get their hands on, so they can make it an exclusive and sell more TVs. The alternative is to have content-before-hardware, but producing a 3D Blu-ray movie is quite costly possibly, as opposed to adding 3D to TVs, which isn't costing manufacturers much at all (and in fact, they're making more per TV because of the premium attached to 3D sets). In any case, Warner has just announced they will release 6 more 3D Blu-ray movies to general release for this holidays, including the "faux 3D" Clash of the Titans. Sony have also announced Open Season on 3D Blu-ray as well. But all eyes are on when Avatar is going to get a general release on 3D Blu-ray, and that will be the title to take the format to mainstream, I think.

And finally in gaming, the PlayStation Move is out and I thought I should briefly talk about it. Most people are wondering if Move will beat Kinect or the opposite, but really, the battle people should be looking at is whether Move can hurt the Wii, and I think it will.

The similarities between the Move and the Wii makes the Move both harder to market, and easier. Easier because people already know what it's all about, harder because many thinks it's just a Wii clone. However, those that have played it (not me though) will almost always say one things: it's very very accurate. That doesn't sound as sexy as Kinect's "look Ma, no controllers" advantage, but super accuracy can give motion gaming a whole new dimension. For traditional gaming, accuracy already makes a huge difference (think controller versus keyboard/mouse for FPS games). With motion gaming, accuracy will draw users more into the action, without them wondering why their real world movement of the controller isn't being translated into the virtual world. And accuracy means the Move controller can be used for games that are more simulations than just random waving of the wand. And of course, accuracy makes for better player, and allows for more complicated games that require more intricate movement. Now whether this makes for better games, I'm not totally convinced yet, but the potential is there. And by being similar the Wii, but better, the Move positions itself as a potential Wii killer.

Kinect is a totally different animal. It's a lot riskier, but if it succeeds, then Microsoft will have a truly unique product that offers something completely different to the Wii and Move. And this difference could either make or break Kinect, but I'm already seeing lots of signs where people generally tend to think of Kinect are more innovative, more fun, and these are two very critical factors in determining what's the must have item for this holiday season. And not having to buy controllers, and the endless list of accessories for them (from steering wheels, to guns, to tennis racquets ), might be a plus for some.

And as I mentioned before, I might just write a blog comparing the two new motion control systems, and also whether the Wii is doomed.

But that's the news for this week. A bad week for DRM, which in my book, means a good week. I wonder which DRM will get broken next week!

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

September 19, 2010	XBMC media center Dharma 10.0 Beta2 Freeware
September 19, 2010	MakeInstantPlayer 1.50 Freeware
September 19, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.13 Freeware
September 19, 2010	HDConvertToX 3.0 RC1 Freeware
September 18, 2010	RAD Video Tools 1.9w Freeware
September 18, 2010	TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4.0.12.42
September 18, 2010	BDedit 0.38
September 18, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.15.1175
September 18, 2010	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1543 Freeware
September 17, 2010	XviD4PSP 6.0 Beta (14 Sep) Freeware
September 17, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 64-Bit 3.9.0 Freeware
September 17, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.4.0 Freeware
September 17, 2010	K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.4.0 Freeware
September 17, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.34.10 Beta Freeware
September 17, 2010	DVDStyler 1.8.2 beta 4 Freeware
September 16, 2010	Replay Media Catcher 4.0.1.0
September 16, 2010	TMPGEnc XPress 4.7.8.309
September 16, 2010	DVBViewer 4.5 RC1
September 16, 2010	Codec Tweak Tool 4.5.0 Freeware
September 16, 2010	The KMPlayer 3.0.0.1438 Freeware
September 16, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.3.2550 Beta Freeware
September 16, 2010	Serviio 0.4.2 Freeware
September 15, 2010	Opti Drive Control 1.50
September 15, 2010	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.2.336
September 15, 2010	Connect360 3.41
September 15, 2010	Moovida 2.0.1.2 Freeware
September 15, 2010	EncodeHD 1.2.221.0 Freeware
September 15, 2010	Kdenlive 0.7.8 Freeware
September 14, 2010	GOM Encoder 1.0.0.38
September 14, 2010	MediaLink 2.02
September 14, 2010	AVCHDCoder 10.09.14 Freeware
September 14, 2010	ffdshow Rev. 3572 (generic/x64 Freeware
September 14, 2010	BDtoAVCHD 1.1.5 Freeware
September 14, 2010	Burn4Free 5.0.0.0
September 14, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.8.3
September 14, 2010	kmttg v0p7o Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 215

2010-09-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

******************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 215

12 September, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

The August NPD analysis is out. The US video game industry isn't looking too healthy compared to the highs of yesteryears, but at least Microsoft are happy that their console is dominating the sales charts in the same way that only the Wii and DS has managed before. And all of this before Halo Reach is released, and before Kinect is even launched. Not bad.

Game Consoles August 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

******************************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

I posted the August US video games sales analysis yesterday here. Nothing too surprising, but we're getting into exciting territory now (if, one can be excited about video game sales stats, that is), what with the Move and Kinect on the way. Many have already expressed their opinion that the Wii is doomed, but rather than looking at it at a glass is half empty perspective, I think the Wii has done extremely well given what it offers. It was never going to last as long as the Xbox 360 or PS3, due to the use of old tech in the console. And the fact that its core audience are casual gamers, and casual by definition means these are not the type of users to buy a lot of games frequently.

Let's start with copyright news. Sometimes there is such a things as saying too much, and an anti-piracy firm based in India may have just admitted to too much in their pursuit of copyright infringing websites.

The managing director of AiPlex, Girish Kumar, has admitted that apart from requesting web hosts to shut down websites that are hosting or providing links to copyrighted material, they have even gone as far as to trying to "attack the site and destroy the data". This could either mean actual server hacking, although it seems more likely to be describing an attack based on denial of service. Regardless, both acts are illegal in most countries (or at least frowned upon), and so using an illegal technique to pursue anti-piracy goals seems to be a bit over the top. Although if you consider that the likes of the MPAA and RIAA are willing to forgo even the basic tenets of democracy and rights to privacy, then a little hacking or DoS doesn't sound too bad at all. While DoS isn't a popular anti-piracy method, but anti-piracy companies have tried various similar techniques to make Torrent downloading a harder task. These includes uploading fake torrents, uploading invalid pieces to increase the number of errors, and massive leech based attacks, denying downloaders from connecting to seeds. As far as I know, these kinds of "attacks" are not illegal, although their effectiveness is highly questionable.

An update on the newspaper copyright trolling news last week, it appears that a Nevada Republican Senate candidate, Sharron Angle, has become Righthaven's latest victim, being sued for up to $150,000 for allegedly copying/pasting a newspaper article. It will be interesting to see what happens, whether the settlement fee is paid up promptly, and whether this has any impact, positive or negative, on the actual election campaign. It was always a matter of time before someone prominent was sued by one of the copyright trolls, and it just made things a little bit more interesting. And if it was downloading one of the porn torrents I mentioned in the last WNR, then expect the fireworks to fly. On a side note, if I was running against Angle, I would use the slogan "Sharron Angle, She's no Angel". You see, that's funny because people often misspell both words, and not a reflection or opinion on her actual character by this blog, since I have no idea who she is.

But one issue that has been raised before is whether an IP address is considered to be private data or not. If it is considered to be private data, then monitoring and storing it could in fact breach privacy laws in many regions. And one country seems to be moving in this direction, as a recent court case in Switzerland has pretty much made copyright trolling illegal. A government agency there actually took an anti-piracy investigation firm to court and won the case that basically confirmed that IP addresses are in fact private. Already, some are saying this ruling is a mistake which may turn Switzerland into a safe haven for copyright infringers. I like to think of IP addresses as akin to phone numbers (those with static IP addresses in particular, but those with dynamic ones, then it's more like having a different pre-paid number every so often). Just like a phone number, an IP address is required to establish communications, and because of this, it means it has to be given out to other parties. But just because it can be seen publicly, like say in a phone book for phone numbers, doesn't mean that it isn't personal, private data. You can't sell a list of my phone numbers for money without my permission, for example, and I think the same should apply to IP addresses. The fact that these companies are making money collecting other people's IP address suggest there needs to be more protection on Internet addressing. Certainly, just like it was argued in the Swiss case, IP addresses should not be used so negligently in civil cases criminal cases would be another matter, of course. Hopefully, other countries will follow suit, but somehow I doubt this will happen

And this is also why making ISP liable for their subscribers potentially illegal activities is just so wrong. Of course, the powers that be aren't asking ISPs to be liable for all crimes, just copyright infringement, which seems strange to me. Why would the ISP be more liable if one of their subscribers downloaded the movie Inception, then say if another user used their Internet connection to send spam or commit Internet fraud? Either they're liable for everything, or they're not liable for anything that their subscribers do. One of the more controversial points of the ACTA is the request for member nations to implement new laws designed to add liability for ISPs, but it seems that this provision is no more. So instead of forcing every country that is a signatory to the treaty to make their ISPs liable, the requirements will now most likely be much more vague, although many countries are still very keen to adopt similar legislation to France's Three Strikes, for example. And again, I have to ask, why is copyright infringement so special that it requires special laws to overrule long standing privacy laws and practices, and to force liability onto ISPs, when other more or less serious "crimes" are not getting the same attention? I haven't heard one argument that explains this, other than the fact that copyright infringement is far too common and so it needs something special. But I would argue that spam, spreading malware, hacking, DoS, fraud, identity fraud, Internet bullying and the myriad of other crimes that can be committed via an Internet connection all deserve more attention than helping the movie and music industry make more money. Spam and spam related fraud, for example, takes billions out of the economy each year, and yet, we see very little action (comparatively) from government agencies and industry bodies in combating this rather serious problem. Is this because the anti-spam lobby isn't as rich or powerful as the anti-piracy lobby?

And all this misplaced attention on anti-piracy all assumes that piracy is actually hurting the economy badly, but you look the record profits that Hollywood studios and music labels are bringing in, and you wonder is this really the case? Is piracy really that bad? Well, for video games at least, an industry experts says that piracy isn't so bad after all. Scott Steinberg, head of technology and video game consulting firm TechSavvy Global, says that piracy can actually help the video game industry. Or more precisely, the industry can use what makes piracy so popular to their advantage, as opposed to continuing the "arms race" against piracy websites and groups, a race in which the industry is losing badly, or using the legal system (and politically lobbying) to stop piracy. Instead, Steinberg argues that by making games cheaper, or even free, and charging small amounts for add-on content, may just be the way, pointing to free social network games such as Facebook's FarmVille (which is free to play, but extra items can be purchased to enhance the gaming experience). This isn't actually a new strategy, or one that hasn't been tried it has been deployed in practice and the results are usually quite good. For example, Steam are now offering discount games (or even free ones, like Portal a couple of months ago) much more often than before, and I suspect that's because it's making them much more money than charging full price for games. Of course, hit games like Starcraft II will always sell well, and a high price is sometimes justified, even though it will lead to more piracy. But I think a balance can be achieved, where you can minimize piracy by reducing the price, but not so much that it becomes unprofitable if the balance is right, I think publishers can look forward to short term increases in revenue and bigger long term benefits such as purchasable add-on content, sequels, paid online services. The alternative is to take the short-sighted approach and continue charging $50+ for games, and then complain about why gamers aren't buying all the numerous good games that come out every year.

In 3D/HD news, what if there was a way to get Blu-ray movies to play on the iPad, or even the iPhone?

Sounds too good to be true? Then perhaps it might just be. The upcoming VLC player for iOS promises to support HD MKV files, which for those with the skills, means they can rip their Blu-ray movies and get it to play on the iOS. But play it might, just don't expect to be at full frames, or anything approaching semi-playable if this video demo is any clue. Without some sort of optimization and acceleration support, it's just expecting too much of the 1 GHz processor in the iPad, remembering that even a P4 3.2 GHz processor struggles to play Blu-ray movies at more than 15 FPS without help from a GPU that supports AVC/VC-1 video decoding.

So the dream of being able to use your iPad for 1080p HD movies remains just that a dream. For now.

But that HD MKV file may not play on the iPad, it may very well play on your TV. Many TVs already support the decoding of HD MKV files. Then there are HD streams on the Internet too, and these will be much easier to access thanks to Google TV, which is coming to a TV near you this Christmas. It's hard to describe exactly what Google TV brings to your TV, but just have a look at the video I posted here, and it will give you a fair idea of what to expect. I'm not sure browsing the web on your TV is going to be great experience, without a keyboard and mouse that is, which is why most Internet TVs have offered only "closed" Internet, just apps that have been custom designed to make using them easier with the TV remote. But with Google TV, perhaps it will be incentive for websites like Facebook and YouTube to offer a version made specially for TV/remote navigation (if they haven't done so already, in the case of YouTube XL).

And finally in gaming, the PS3 has just had a new firmware out, and the changelog lists "additional security features" as pretty much the only change.

So I'm just going to take a wild stab here and say that it had something to do with the PS Jailbreak device. And guess what, the PS Jailbreak device certainly no longer works after installing firmware 3.42.

But for those that avoided the update, then there will apparently be a new updated version of the Backup Manager. It promises support for future firmware updates (I gather this means that someone will go about hacking 3.42 or later to ensure that the exploit is still there, and that online services are still working). The update also promises native MKV playback, a much missed feature of the PS3, and even bringing back PS2 emulation. So it's clear that the PS Jailbreak device will be more than just about piracy in the future.

And that's all the news I have for you this week. Have a good one.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

September 12, 2010	MediaCoder 0.7.5 Build 4742 Freeware
September 12, 2010	SPlayer 3.5 Build 1527 Freeware
September 12, 2010	kmttg v0p7n Freeware
September 12, 2010	ImageGrab 5.0.5 Freeware
September 12, 2010	Windows 7 Codecs 2.6.3 Freeware
September 12, 2010	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.6.7 Freeware
September 12, 2010	Vista Codec Package 5.8.2 Freeware
September 12, 2010	VideoCacheView 1.77 Freeware
September 11, 2010	Splash 1.5.0 Freeware
September 11, 2010	HC (HCenc) 0.24 Freeware
September 11, 2010	AVStoDVD 2.3.2 Alpha 100910 Freeware
September 11, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.14.1155
September 11, 2010	BurnAware Free Edition 3.0.5 Freeware
September 11, 2010	BD Rebuilder 0.34.09 Beta Freeware
September 10, 2010	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.3.8 Freeware
September 10, 2010	D2MP 4.22 Freeware
September 10, 2010	MeGUI 0.3.5.9 Freeware
September 9, 2010	MediaLink 2.01
September 9, 2010	multiAVCHD 4.1 Build 770 Freeware
September 9, 2010	BDInfo 0.5.6 Freeware
September 8, 2010	CCCP 2010-09-07 beta Freeware
September 8, 2010	Total Video Converter 3.71
September 8, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.3.2505 Beta Freeware
September 8, 2010	PopCorn MKV ReMuxer 1.04 Freeware
September 8, 2010	madVR 0.31 Freeware
September 8, 2010	Preferred Filter Tweaker for Windows 7 3.6 Freeware
September 8, 2010	ConvertXtoDVD 4.1.1.334
September 8, 2010	PopCorn MKV AudioConverter 1.82.12 Freeware
September 7, 2010	MediaInfo 0.7.35 Freeware
September 7, 2010	AVS Video Converter 7.0.1.449
September 7, 2010	VirtualDub 1.9.10 (Build 32839) Freeware
September 6, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.8.1
September 6, 2010	AVIAddXSubs 9.8 Freeware
September 6, 2010	Quick Media Converter 4.0.0.32 HD Beta
September 6, 2010	GB-PVR 1.5.31 Beta Freeware
September 6, 2010	xVideoServiceThief 2.4.1 Freeware
September 6, 2010	DVDStyler 1.8.2 beta 3 Freeware
September 5, 2010	Wii Video 9 6.00 Freeware
September 5, 2010	PSP Video 9 6.00 Freeware
September 5, 2010	PS3 Video 9 6.00 Freeware
September 5, 2010	Videora Xbox360 Converter 6.00 Freeware
September 5, 2010	Videora iPod Converter 6.00 Freeware
September 5, 2010	Videora iPhone Converter 6.00 Freeware
September 5, 2010	Videora Apple TV Converter 6.00 Freeware
September 5, 2010	WinMPG Video Convert 9.1.6
September 5, 2010	Bitrate Viewer 2.2 Freeware
September 5, 2010	Ut Video Codec Suite 8.2.0 Freeware
September 5, 2010	MKVToolnix 4.3.0 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

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[liveupdate] Digital Digest "LiveUpdate" Newsletter - Issue 214

2010-09-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

*****************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 214

5 September, 2010

******************************************************************

INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

******************************************************************

1. Introduction

This issue marks the first time that this newsletter has used the term "shemale". Wouldn't you know it, it had something to do with copyright. I don't know what's worse, getting sued for downloading a movie called "Shemale Yum" or getting caught for downloading a Uwe Boll movie.

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2. Weekly News Roundup

Good news everyone! Another edition of the WNR is ready, for you to enjoy. Actually, since I write the intro first, the WNR isn't ready at the exact time I'm writing this. And I'm not sure why I started with a Futurama inspired phrase, except perhaps for the fact that I've been watching Futurama lately. I kind of feel cheated having previously purchased the *entire* Futurama series on DVD, only for the show to be revived. Let's just hope they don't revive Arrested Development as well, to ruin my *complete* collection. It's pretty news lite this week, but it won't mean I will write less crap. You've been warned!

Let's start with copyright news, like I always have with the 150+ WNRs I've done so far. Copyright trolling is a relatively new term that's been coined to describe the act of suing for copyright for profit, much like how patent trolls secure patents with no product, in the hope of one day profiting.

The latest trend in copyright trolling is in the dying newspaper business, and I've reported on the sue-for-settlement activities conducted by Righthaven for Stephens Media, owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal amongst other papers. But it looks like another newspaper chain has signed up, with Arkansas based WEHCO Media also joining the trolling activities. These cases usually involve suing blogs and aggregators for posting full versions of articles published by the newspaper chains. Now some will argue that there's nothing wrong with this, and as someone who has had their articles copy/pasted without permission many times, I kind of agree. But as someone who also runs websites that contain user generated content, it's hard to ensure your users don't also break the rules by copying/pasting articles. The DMCA safe harbor provisions should protect website owners in these kind of situations, as long as they have clear, enforceable rules in regards to copyright, but it appears the DMCA is not offering protection to those being sued, unless they go to court to claim safe harbor, as their own expense. And while I agree that it's important to protect copyright, the attempt at monetization here seems a bit too obvious it's almost as if this has become a new source of income for the struggling newspaper industry. This blog isn't well suited to discuss how to save the newspaper business, but with the iPad and similar devices, there does exist a small window of opportunity for innovation. If newspapers can deliver an unique product for devices like the iPad, based on a paid subscription service, then there is potential there. Not trying to do their work for them, not that I have the ability anyway, but perhaps by making news more interactive, with real feedback (polls, text/video comments, user video updates), by providing more in depth coverage, more multimedia coverage they're all directions to look at. It's certainly a better long term solution than copyright trolling.

And an update on the other infamous copyright troll, the US Copyright Group are moving ahead with their The Hurt Locker cases, with the first users receiving notices via their ISP after the USCG's subpoena request to ISP Qwest. So for those hoping the USCG would quit after finding more resistance than first expected will be disappointed. What I fear, and I've covered this before, is that copyright trolling will be used as an excuse to bring in even harsher copyright laws. After all, three-strikes is better than the one-strike system that copyright trolls are relying on, right? This has already happened over in the UK, after all. And just like overseas, taking the same approach and suing for downloading pirated porn has arrived, and it is expected to bring in an even higher ROI. I mean when accused with downloading a movie called "Shemales From Hell", even if you knew you didn't download this file, would you dare to challenge this in court? Of course not, and people will pay up almost every time, and that's exactly what the law firms are counting on. Is it legal blackmail? Does it sound like a scam? But it is legal, and expect more firms to take up this potential lucrative practice.

Speaking of scams, if I told you I could offer you free unlimited music download from all the major labels for only $25 per month, and since this is a new service, I'm waiving the $25 per month fee for a limited time, and all I need is your credit card number, then would you trust me? I know I wouldn't trust myself, thanks largely to the Scrooge like pricing strategy of the major labels, ironically. It just sounds to good to be true, and so it probably isn't true. So beware of sites offering too good to be true offers, because they may be offering illegal services, or worse, offering no services at all.

Moving on quickly to HD/3D news, there are a couple of important announcements regarding Blu-ray 3D. But before we get to that, why did the Blu-ray people decide to call this thing "Blu-ray 3D" and not "3D Blu-ray"? Should it be at least "Blu-ray: 3D" or "Blu-ray in 3D".

Anyway, the first announcement is that Avatar will be released on "3D Blu-ray" in December. But only to those with Panasonic 3D TVs. It's a shame such a high profile title is being released as a manufacturer exclusive title, but with the close links between Panasonic and the movie, this was never a big surprise. The details are still not available, so we don't even know if the title will be free for all buyers of Panasonic 3D TV's, or only offered to those that buy a TV during the promotional period. Those who can't wait and don't have Panasonic equipment, then eBay may be your friend. Otherwise, expect the general release 3D Blu-ray version of Avatar sometime in early 2011, maybe in April, exactly a year after the 2D Blu-ray release. Or sooner.

The second announcement is that the eagerly awaited 3D Blu-ray firmware update for the PS3 won't be coming this month as promised earlier, but should still be here before the end of next month. This is kind of a big deal for 3D Blu-ray, because it would at least guarantee that there will now be millions of 3D capable Blu-ray players in people's homes, and that may help people make up their minds when buying their next TV (whether it should be a 2D only or 3D). But it would be a bigger deal if more movies are made available on 3D Blu-ray, because the current selection is pretty thin.

Apple announced new iPods recently, but buried amongst the announcements was a new updated Apple TV. Dubbed Apple's pet project, the Apple TV has not received the same amount of attention and marketing as their other devices. But the new Apple TV is slightly controversial, as Apple is asking people to change the way they enjoy movies and TV shows this time - by renting, and not buying. Apple plans to do this via the cloud, which is just a fancy way of saying that everything is online, and nothing gets downloaded. But I have serious doubts about such a service taking off because of a few fundamental issues. One, people still like to buy movies and TV shows, as people do re-watch their favourite movies or TV shows, and most don't want to pay every time they do it. Two, not everyone has an Internet connection capable of streaming the HD video that Apple is promising, not without some buffering, which then becomes just downloading (so not very "cloudy" at all). And three, Apple's argument that people don't want to manage large video and music collections simply doesn't stack up, to me at least, because people do that all the time. And unless Apple offers the ability to store our own sourced content in the cloud (whether it's ripped from CDs, or purchased from other stores), then there will still be the need to manage a file collection of some sort. But as long as you only use Apple products and services, you'll be fine, and that's what Apple is counting on, I suppose interoperability can take a back seat.

But the biggest problem I have with this approach is still number one, the fact that you can't buy movies. Just because content is stored in the cloud, doesn't mean you can't buy them. The only difference is that with purchased content, you don't have to pay every time you access it in the cloud, but by providing such a service, Apple would have to charge more per music/movie file made available for purchase on the cloud, compared to a download purchase. And when faced with the choice, people may still just go for the cheaper download and choose to invest a bit more time managing their own file collection locally (or via a third party cloud hosting service). And that's not what Apple wants.

So cloud storage is great, but as long as the fundamental problems gets solved first, specifically people's average Internet connection speeds, DRM/interoperability, and please please allow people to purchase stuff.

And finally in gaming, more news on the PS Jailbreak device, which last week say legal action in the Australian courts which led to a ban on the device.

This week though featured news that Sony won't have liked, in that someone has managed to extract the software from the PS Jailbreak device and have made it open source. Dubbed PSGroove, the open source version won't allow pirated games to be played to avoid too much legal trouble (although there will still be plenty of trouble, I can guarantee it), but it does allow unsigned code to run on the PS3, in other words, homebrew! The PS Jailbreak exploit is based on tricking the PS3 into thinking that it's a USB hub of some kind, and an overflow exploit to inject code to make it all work. The nature of this exploit means that it's easy (but not trivial) to build your own USB device, or even use your existing USB device to do it (like smartphones, for example). But what is trivial perhaps is Sony's "fix" for this exploit, so this exploit is unlikely to work on firmware beyond version 3.41.

And so we come to the end of another issue of the WNR. Hope you enjoyed this edition as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Except I didn't enjoy writing it :)

See you next week.

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

September 5, 2010	DVB Dream 1.5e
September 5, 2010	ProgDVB 6.46.6 Freeware
September 4, 2010	PlayOn 3.0.12.1132
September 4, 2010	x264 r1713 Freeware
September 4, 2010	multiAVCHD 4.1 Build 768 Freeware
September 4, 2010	XMedia Recode 2.2.6.8 Freeware
September 4, 2010	SPlayer 3.5 Build 1509 Beta Freeware
September 3, 2010	Replay Media Catcher 4.0.9.0
September 3, 2010	madVR 0.30 Freeware
September 3, 2010	ffdshow Rev. 3556 (generic/x64) Freeware
September 3, 2010	VideoCacheView 1.76 Freeware
September 2, 2010	SolveigMM AVI Trimmer 2.0.1009.2 Beta Freeware
September 2, 2010	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.0.7.9
September 2, 2010	RAD Video Tools 1.9v Freeware
September 2, 2010	ImgBurn 2.5.2.0 Freeware
September 2, 2010	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.3.2436 Beta Freeware
September 2, 2010	Preferred Filter Tweaker for Windows 7 3.5 Freeware
September 2, 2010	cdrtfe 1.3.9 Freeware
September 1, 2010	BurnAware Free Edition 3.0.4 Freeware
September 1, 2010	ImageGrab 5.0.4 Beta Freeware
September 1, 2010	StaxRip 1.1.6.9 Beta Freeware
September 1, 2010	DVD Swarm 1.1.10.901 Freeware
September 1, 2010	ActionBlu AVCHD 1.0.0.4
September 1, 2010	Theora Converter .NET 2.2 Freeware
August 31, 2010	Windows 7 Codecs 2.6.2 Freeware
August 31, 2010	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.6.5 Freeware
August 31, 2010	Plex Media Center 0.9.0.21 Freeware
August 31, 2010	Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder 6.0.0
August 31, 2010	WinFF 1.3.1 Freeware
August 31, 2010	BDInfo 0.5.5 Freeware

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