Doubts have arisen about the effectiveness of a Windows key generator package that allegedly offered a means to circumvent Microsoft's anti-piracy protection.

A new standard for downloading movies and then burning them to DVD, called CSS Managed Recording, reached final approval during the DVD Forum in Tokyo last week. PCWorld reports that the standard will allow movies burned to DVD and watched on most standard DVD players while maintianing copy protection that prohibits unauthorized duplication.

Samsung Electronics, a maker of consumer devices and a supporter of the Blu-ray disk (BD) format is quietly selling laptops with HD DVD optical drives on its domestic market. This comes as a surprise, as Samsung earlier decided to scrap its consumers players that would play both BDs and competing HD DVDs.

A three-layer HD DVD disc with enough room for about 7 hours of high-definition video is still under development and hasn't been submitted for approval to the DVD Forum, the standard's governing body, despite reports to the contrary said a Toshiba spokesman.

LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling have made available for download a free piece of software called the LightScribe Simple Labeler, a labeling tool designed to make labeling easier.

Eighteen months after rival Apple Inc. raised the bar in the music player market with its video iPod, Sony Corp. will launch its first digital video Walkman.

Over stateside YouTube has been brought in as another resource in tracking down suspects that have been caught on video. Patrolman Brian Johnson posted a clip from a security camera showing two men using allegedly stolen credit cards at a Home Depot on YouTube. He then emailed about 300 people and organizations with the link saying he was looking the men.

Well known warez group 'paradox' has provided tools and information on how to trick a Vista installation (x86) into acting as if it is installed on an OEM machine, which requires no product activation. Manufacturers such as Dell distribute pre-installed Vista installations on new computers.

Netflix has delivered its 1 billionth DVD over the weekend, marking another milestone in the Internet rental service's evolution from a peculiar dot-com to a marquee attraction in millions of homes.

The first laptop computer to feature an HD DVD-R drive, Toshiba Corp.'s Qosmio Q30, went on sale in Japan over the weekend.

Imation have announced the world's first inkjet printable and water-resistant Blu-ray media. Optimized for professional disc duplication, users can record high-definition video, gaming, data and other content on Imation Inkjet Printable BD-R Media with AquaGuard(TM) technology, then print water- and smear-resistant graphics and text right on the disc's surface.

The U.K. government has rejected a call for digital rights management to be banned, but has acknowledged that the technology could undermine consumer rights.

Canada's homegrown digital music store Puretracks has lifted controversial copy restrictions from a large chunk of its catalogue, adding its weight to a growing number of industry players that appear increasingly open to unfettered file-sharing.

Web company BitTorrent Inc, once scorned in Hollywood, on Sunday joined a number of providers in the nascent arena for legal downloads of movies and television shows with content from several key studios.

Sony have said it is going to launch movie download service for the PlayStation 3 which should allow them to acquire new content without buying DVDs or Blu-ray discs. The move will also make the PlayStation 3 console an entertainment machine rather than a pure game console.

US television conglomerate Viacom has signed a content deal to put its programming on Joost, the internet on-demand TV service from the men behind Skype. The agreement means that TV shows from MTV, BET Networks, and film studio Paramount Pictures will be made available to watch for free on the internet.

UK retail chain Makro has reduced the price of the premium version of the Xbox 360 console to £199, a reduction of £80. This means that the premium console is selling for the same price as the cheaper Core unit.

The shy and retiring, softly-spoken CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer is blaming software pirates for Vista's poor sales.

A fake DVD trader has been ordered to pay back more than £60,000 in profits or face a longer jail sentence.

Six independent filmmakers have debuted their made-for-mobile movies at the 3GSM World Congress. In November, Robert Redford's Sundance Film Institute and the GSM Association (GSMA) commissioned six filmmakers to produce five films exclusively for distribution on mobile handsets. Each was to be about three to five minutes in length.