blog.spathis.com » CE

First pirated HD DVD movie in the wild…

Constantine — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:10:29 +0000

Just caught this on Ars Technica, first pirated HD DVD movie has been spotted on BitTorrent. Coming on the earlier news that HD DVD keys had been compromised this is huge. The pirated movie is Serenity made available as a .EVO file of approximately 20GB. What next? Will they revoke the keys? The implications of what happens now is going to define the next few years in struggle between technology and the content producers, lawyers start y'er engines!

Zune Redux…

Constantine — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:50:02 +0000

Wired has a very interesting review of the Zune. The net is, don't believe the negative reviews, the Zune is actually a well-done piece of hardware & software as long as you can overlook a few minor flaws. It would be great if the product actually provides some competition to the iPod.

Early Zune sales numbers…

Constantine — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:08:16 +0000

Some early Zune numbers are coming in. Amazing the Zune is number 2 portable device at its debut. Read all about it at Zune reaches No. 2 in its debut week. The "consumer experience" should start filtering to blogs shortly…

CEA & RIAA Smackdown…

Constantine — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:27:04 +0000

The RIAA's Cary Sherman has a Nov 13, 2006 must-read editorial on CNet. In it Sherman calls CEA's President Gary Shapiro statements "extreme", Sherman goes on and describes what he sees as the limits & definition of fair use. Why all the brouhaha? The just recently launched digitalfreedom.org site sponsored by the CEA. If you haven't checked it out I urge you to do so now and while you're there make sure to sign the petition.

My own editorial: The CEA is doing very important work in defending the right of consumers to consume and enjoy media the way THEY want to and not in some manner tightly controlled by the RIAA. Pay close attention to what the new congress does, traditionally the Democratic party is very close to the traditional supporters of the RIAA & the MPAA (lawyers & media companies) and may try to strengthen laws that further restrict consumer's ability to use media that they lawfully own. The best refutation of Sherman's arguments are in Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture. You can find Free Culture online either as a pdf or as MP3's, its a must-read for all 21st century consumers.

Early PS3 reports….

Constantine — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 19:11:49 +0000

Looks like there is some trouble brewing in PS3 land, NY Times reports the game console is a big miss. This is EXTREMELY bad news for Sony, they have lost the battle in the music player space and are now poised to lose the battle in video games.