Further to my previous post about DRM, or digital rights management, here’s a story from IDG News Service about software that may allow Windows-using customers of Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes Music Store to break the DRM technology that protects files downloaded from that service. That the guy who posted it — or hosted it… Read More »
One in the eye for the printer manufacturers: IDG reports that a ruling this week from the U.S. Copyright Office could have broad effects on the market for low-cost, third-party printer cartridges.Lexmark is suing manufacturer Static Control Components (SCC) of Sanford, North Carolina, which makes computer chips for third-party ink cartridges. Lexmark says SCC’s chips… Read More »
Hard times for Bloggers Like Us: MicrosoftWatch reports that a temp worker, Michael Hanscom, has become the first Microsoft employee to lose his job over his blog. But, as with all these cases, it gets murkier the more you look at it. Hanscom doesn’t believe it was the act of blogging, per se, that led… Read More »
More on disguised branding, this time with newspaper-related sites. Steve Outing points out on Poynter that newspapers are putting up bloglike sites to appeal to the younger crowd, while playing down the site’s connections to the owner. Steve cites the Arizona Daily Star’s AZNightBuzz, where “there’s no indication on the home page that the site… Read More »
At first glance AkibaLive looks like a cool new blog on Japanese gadgets. But it’s not. It’s a marketing gimmick by Dynamism.com, “the leading U.S. retailer of next-generation electronics from Japan and around the globe”. The press release says it all: “Retailers have yet to leverage the targeted, personal impact blogging has on consumers,” it… Read More »