Monday, June 26, 2006

DCIA's P2P Media Summit

Last Thursday on June 22nd, the Distributed Computing Industry Association held its inaugural P2P Media Summit - which consisted of 7 panels and 5 keynotes by some very distinguished guests. The DCIA is a voluntary organization representing all sectors of the distributed computing industry (including content providers, software developers and distributors, and service-and-support companies) and is engaged in developing standards-and-practices to advance this innovative consumer-based distribution channel. Several awards were given out with the Pioneer Award going to MetaMachine (eDonkey), the Groundbreaker's Award to Arvato Mobile, the Trendsetter's Award to LTDnetwork (developer of Qtrax) and the Innovator's Award went to INTENT MediaWorks. The event was held at the Holiday Inn at Tyson's Corner in McClean, Virginia and was well attended with over 100 guests. I will post a summary of my notes soon...In the meantime, HERE's a link to some photos. The organization also publishes an excellent weekly newsletter that I recommend opting into...

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Melodeo Releases Open Source DRM

Yesterday via press release, Melodeo, announced PachyDRM, an open source digital rights management (DRM) initiative designed to accelerate a broad and secure market for "any media, on any network, on any device."

PachyDRM includes the release of the Melodeo DRM source code and specification, now openly available at PachyDRM.org. Commercially deployed by Melodeo since 2004, PachyDRM has been licensed by leading device manufacturers and endorsed by major content providers.
PachyDRM is a proven solution for all leading business approaches, including pay-per-download transactions and subscription services. Among its distinctions, the PachyDRM code was used for the world's first commercial deployment of legal peer-to-peer music file sharing on mobile phones in Canada, and it has been selected by Access Media as the basis of legal, protected digital content distribution in China.

The PachyDRM code has been implemented on multiple mobile phone platforms and is now extending to other devices including the personal computer. "We believe PachyDRM fills the critical need for an open, freely available and technically viable solution," said Jim Billmaier, CEO, Melodeo. "The industry needs a working, open alternative to onerous, closed, and proprietary technologies such as Apple Fairplay and Microsoft DRM."

The specification and client-server reference source code for PachyDRM can be downloaded for free HERE.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Free Virus Scan

Here's a healthy computing tip: If you happen to be using a computer without virus protection software (or your subscription has expired) you can go to www.pandasoftware.com and find the link for their "Active Scan" - run that on your computer and it will search for viruses for free. Your computer will NOT be permanently protected, but it will find whatever you have on their now.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Real Drops Music Prices

Just when you thought there was no margin on digital music sales, Real Music Store has dropped the pricing on on old favorites and new releases:

- Song downloads $.69
- Whole albums $6.99

In2TV LAUNCHES SUPERMAN CHANNEL

Warner Brothers is doing a good job going after the long-tail and is helping to redefine television. The new Superman channel starts tomorrow and includes:

- The A&E Special
- 'Look, Up In The Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman'
- 'The Adventures of Superman'
- 'Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'
- Max Fleischer Superman Cartoons

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Blogger Help : What is BlogThis! ?

Here's a really quick way to post to your blog by using a handy dandy Google add-in called "BlogThis!." Whenever you hit a webpage that is news worthy, just hit the Blogger icon in the Google tool bar and a post is automatically added to your blog. It is definitely a time saver :)

BlogThis! will work with almost any browser and operating system including IE 5 or greater on both the PC and Mac, Mozilla 1.0+, Safari, Camino, Firefox, and Opera. It does not work with Netscape 4.