Technology Talk

It’s no secret that most tech savvy people despise digital rights management (DRM). So it’s not entirely surprising that last week, Digg users revolted.

DVD publishers add DRM to their movie releases so they can control whether the dvds can be copied and even what devices are allowed to play the dvds. In February 2007, Arnezami, a hacker on the Doom9 forum who was frustrated because his purchased HD-DVD movies wouldn’t play on his Linux-based computer (I believe), cracked the code and published the 128-bit number on the web. The Wired blog wrote up an article about what that meant for the future of DRM. Read the rest

It’s been a long week for Google. At the beginning of the month, Google finally submitted their response (PDF) to Viacom’s $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit over video content on YouTube. The gist - they’re claiming they’re protected by the DMCA. Search Engine Land and TechDirt have good summaries of the response. Read the rest

While Pew Internet has broken down Information and Communication Technology (ICT) users into 10 groups based on how they use the internet and cellphones, Forrester Research has created a ladder showing how consumers engage with internet technology. Their study of US adult online consumers found that 52% didn’t participate in any social networking activities.

Here’s the chart Charlene Li posted on her blog. The rungs at the top of the ladder indicate a higher level of participation. Read the rest

Pew Internet just published a study of how US adults use the internet (pdf). They found that Americans fall into 10 different groups depending on their information and communication technology (ICT) usage. Of those, Pew created 3 broader groups: Elite Tech Users (31% of American adults), Middle-of-the-road Tech Users (20%) and Few Tech Assets (49%). Read the rest

Last month, Viacom caused a major stink when it demanded YouTube remove all it’s copyrighted materials. YouTube complied and removed 100,000 videos - including some that weren’t infringing on Viacom’s copyright. Since then, all sorts of copyright bickering has gone on. Read the rest