Renewal of smartphone jailbreaking and video remixing rights

Jailbreaking now ok for ‘smart’ phones

Copyright Office Announces Exemptions to Mitigate DMCA Harms

San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation has won renewal of critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in a new ruling, including the upholding of jailbreaking rights for smartphones – and new and expanded legal protections for video remixing.

Flickr Killer? FSF backs MediaGoblin for free media sharing platform

FSF backing MediaGoblin and StatusNet

FSF rallies support for GNU MediaGoblin to make media publishing free “as in freedom”

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ The Free Software Foundation is backing the GNU MediaGoblin project’s fundraiser at http://mediagoblin.org/pages/campaign.html – a community-developed free – as in freedom – software that enables users to share their experiences through photos, videos, and audio in a decentralised way.

MediaGoblin ‘sidesteps’ current media-publishing gatekeepers, FSF said.

REVIEW: Honestech Audio Recorder 3.0 Plus with USB Cassette Player

By ECM PLUS REVIEWS LAB

ECM Plus +++ With just a few clicks convert your analogue audio content into digital with the Honestech Audio Recorder 3.0 Plus.

Convert all of your music, including cassettes, LPs and 8-track tapes, into MP3s, WAV files, audio CDs and MP3 CDs, and listen to them on your portable music players, preserving and backing up your audio.

Belgian DAM doyen bolsters SDL links in CXM move

Belgians bolster DAM efforts

Retail client content project spurs firms in joint operations for customer satisfaction

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ Ghent-based ADAM Software and SDL have just reaffirmed their partnership to offer customer experience to companies with large-scale e-commerce operations.

According to the two firms, the move builds on a national retail chain where SDL and ADAM Software carried out a seamless deployment of an online store containing hundreds of thousands of pieces of content.

Book search case threatens librarians’ access to information

Hugh D’Andrade’s design to commemorate Electronic Frontier Foundation’s 20th Birthday.

Ignoring fair use doctrine, Authors Guild suit tries to block valuable resource

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed an amicus brief urging a federal court to find that the ‘fair use doctrine’ shelters Google’s Book Search “snippet” project from copyright infringement claims from the Authors Guild.

EFF was joined by three associations representing over 100,000 libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Library Association, and the Association of College and Research Libraries.

HARDWARE REVIEW: Sandberg SPDIF Digital Audio Cable

Digital sound just got that little bit clearer via ‘Lux Line’

Model: Sandberg SP/DIF digital cable – 504-24: Digital audio, music, primarily is a very subjective thing. Some people have ears like bats, others have cloth ears. From those who can hear a pin drop to those who are atonal as a lump of mud, the world is full of variance .

And so to review and, ostensibly, identical piece of wire is not a task for the faint-hearted.

VIEWPOINT: CES – Gadget glut betrays storage setbacks

CES show portends cost conundrums

No more gimmickry please, just give us the skinny

BY PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus +++ Bullshitometers are very much in evidence at this year’s annual CES bash for boffins of all things tech gadget enslavement.

Axe gods grab hi-fi firm in high-end audio expansion

Nashville, Tennessee, home of Gibson Guitars

Gibson acquires stake in Onkyo Japan and majority interest in Onkyo USA

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ American musical instrument manufacturer Gibson Guitar has just inked a strategic partnership with Onkyo Corporation, the Japanese audio specialist.

According to the Nashville firm, Onkyo will give Gibson’s newly-formed pro audio division substantial technology resources.

REVIEW: Magix Rescue Your Videotapes! 4.0

Wave goodbye to dusty old tapes and bulky cases

by ECM Plus Labs

ECM Plus +++ When it comes to valuable digital assets, few would argue that old family videos and precious moments from our cultural heritage, birthdays, Christmas morning, family weddings, first steps, proud father, Mother’s Day, and so on and so forth, are those moments that many families have made Olde Worlde tape-based videos of, but are in large part, currently languishing in a dusty box in the garage or in the attic.

Money and votes behind House Bill easing sharing of video rental information

Bill passed that allows for VSPs to obtain consent on an "...ongoing basis..."

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill (HR 2471) that would amend the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 to ease restrictions on sharing of video rental information.

The bill is supported by Facebook, Netflix, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Digital Media Association. The measure is opposed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Software giveaway brings Yuletide cheer

Yo-ho-ho! ‘Tis the season of goodwill to all men.

DownloadBuyer.com has over ten grand’s worth of software to give away throughout December

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ DownloadBuyer, the online software store, is to give away £10,000 worth of software for Windows and Mac OS in their ‘Christmas Lucky Dip’ promotion.

Jon Silvera, managing director commented: “DownloadBuyer.com continues to see strong growth. To celebrate, we pulled together a massive prize pot donated from participating vendors and are both proud and excited to pass these on to our customers as a thank you over the Christmas period. So along with many half price offers over Xmas there’ 50/50 chance to pick up a totally free product on top”.

Media mashup toolkit proffers content ubiquity

Disc ripperama - for 'backups' of precious content

BinaryDistribution launches mediAvatar media toolkit

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ BinaryDistribution has just launched its latest version of mediAvatar Media Toolkit Ultimate and Media Toolkit.

According to the company, mediAvatar Media toolkit Ultimate for Windows and Mac OS X based computers is the quintessential toolkit for backing up* DVDs and Blu-rays protecting the original discs from scratches and general wear and tear.

StarForce updates audio and video content protection app

Plus ca change: Media copyright issues have been around for years

Updated version for audio/visual content protection and licensing

By ECM Plus staf

ECM Plus +++ StarForce has just released an updated version of FrontLine Audio/Video, the professional software app for protecting audio and video content from unauthorised copying and distribution.

REVIEW: Verbatim Executive 500GB USB3.0 External HDD

Portable drive with encrpytion, backup and power saving functionality

By PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus +++ With the rise and rise of private cloud, NAS boxes and SSD portable media, the role of localised storage will always be as important if not more so than entrusting one’s priceless personal data to the vagaries of a remote public cloud, where one’s data may be lost, deleted, or simply vanish forever as happened to Flickr in recent times.

Kentico gives web content management marketing muscle

Beta release with integrated customer experience management

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ Web content management system vendor Kentico Software has just taken the wraps off its new beta version of Kentico CMS 6 which now boasts a new product line – Kentico Enterprise Marketing Solution.

CADAC outs ‘killer’ live digital console

Content creators swoon as CADAC launches ‘killer’ digital console for live installation applications

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ Cadac has just launching a new digital live production console, CDC Eight, the British console company’s third console design in a year.

LifeSort online backup proffers another cloud content closet

Dutch want to sort your life out

Securing and sharing ‘free’ cloud file management

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ In what is being dubbed as the ‘first real semantic desktop’ a small Dutch startup firm – ‘The Guys That Hope’ have taken the wrsps off what it claims can provide an ‘identical interface offline as online’.

According to TGTH, this new file managment software can simplify the organization and management of what it calls the ‘digital life’.

Polycom’s cloud-based video media content strikes Accordent

Lights, sound, camera, action...

Polycom’s new cloud-based media services for video content hosted on Azure platform

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ Polycom has launched its new Accordent Media Services platform powered by Azure, a new cloud service for searchable content for all video assets.

According to Polycom, Accordent Media Services organisations by managing their growing libraries of multi-source, multi-format video assets without having to add any more extensive IT resources or having to make any more major capital expenditures on special networking or storage systems.

DigitalFilm Tree casts Xytech in lead role for Tinseltown media makeover

Tinsel Town in the Roaring Twenties

DigitalFilm Tree puts Xytech’s MediaPulse in place for post-production, takes a bow for an Encore

By PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus +++ Hollywood-based post-production company DigitalFilm Tree has just invested in a new MediaPulse platform and extension, Encore, for its production, post and consulting operation.

DigitalFilm Tree specialises in workflow for file-based post-production while creating new ways of working that helps film-makers, broadcasters and studios to adapt to a changing technological landscape.

NAB SHOW: Digital media workflow receives boost with ADA archive integration

Digital archiving integrates into workflow with XML metadata

Company broadens digital media management and workflow apps, XML metadata integration

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ Archiving specialist Atempo’s new digital archive file archiver now integrates with workflow apps across a range of platforms, streamlining digital workflows in data-intensive environments.

According to the company, for media and entertainment businesses, ADA cam integrate with creative applications to enable professionals to archive during the content creatio  process,  and to be able to pull information into and out of the archives at will.

NAB SHOW: Audio content boost for broadcast as Sonnox taps Fraunhofer

Graphic comparison between a CDA file and a MP3

Pro-Codec plug-in launched at NAB Show in Vegas

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ /LAS VEGAS/ – Booth SU5520 – Fraunhofer IIS and plug-in designer Sonnox has launched a new broadcast quality, post-production audio codec to use high-quality, bandwidth-saving MPEG audio with AAC and mp3 formats and portable into audio editing software.

Fraunhofer said it would be showing a mastering-quality plug-in developed with Sonnox that will bring the audio quality and bandwidth savings of its codecs to the broadcast and professional markets. 

NAB SHOW: TV content session tackles mainstream media miasma

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NAB Show in Las Vegas

Session to examine distribution of TV content across new platforms

By PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus +++ This year’s NAB Show is to take on the challenging issues of the day in mass media, with a new super session given over to what it calls the ‘Connected TV’, which is set to feature industry pundits opining on their take on a ‘new Internet’ and the video devices that are impacting the maisntream media’s television fate.

2011’s  NAB Show promises quite a paradigm shift for content creators with the debut of a the Super Session examining the new ways in which content is delivered to people and the ramifications such developments have on the mainstream media TV’s future. 

Creatives get the picture with new media content workflow

Workflow optimisation for media enterprise content. Picture: Francis Storr

Telestream’s Vantage Enterprise proffes unified workflow, video content collaboration

By PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus +++ At this week’s NAB event digital media workflow specialist vendor Telestream will be taking the wraps off its new Vantage Enterprise workflow offerings.

The company said this new version of Vantage server-based workflow software now automates content ingest, video file interoperability, multi-channel distribution, as well as other video production workflows for content owners and creators, broadcast and new media companies.

Amazon flows into cloud music space

E-tail giant takes on incumbents in cloud music drive

Retail giant heads up with Cloud Drive, Cloud Player

By PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus – Amazon has just launched its new Cloud Drive service at amazon.com/clouddrive and Cloud Player for Web at amazon.com/cloudplayer in a bold late move to head off the likes of Apple in the web music space.

Vaizey to keynote at digital media moot

Image via Wikipedia

Digital content creators to convene at BAFTA in monetization initiative

ECM Plus – /Manchester/ +++ D-Media Network is hosting a digital media conference at BAFTA next week from 29th to the 30th of March to thrash out how to generate an income.

According to D-Media, culture secretary Edward Vaizey will be giving a keynote speech at the launch event, to be held at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts on Piccadilly in London.