Topic: News

Yahoo is in early discussions with major record labels over offering unprotected MP3s either for sale or for free as part of an ad-supported service, two record company executives familiar with the talks said Wednesday.

US retail giant Best Buy has apologised to Heath Ledger's family and fans after one of the firm’s employees erected a makeshift movie display in memory of the Brokeback Mountain star.

Sony has licensed MTV programming for viewing on the PlayStation Portable, which represents some of the first new non-Sony product released for the PSP in some time.

The online community MySpace is partnering with the BBC to bring some of the British broadcaster's programs to a worldwide audience in the site's first global content deal involving a major network.

Copying music from a CD to a home computer could be made legal under new proposals from the UK government.

Ritek, one of the world's largest producer of blank optical discs, has obtained OEM orders for blank HD DVD-RW (rewritable) discs from Toshiba, with shipments to begin in the first quarter of 2008, according to Chinese-language newspaper Economic Daily News (EDN).

Following the bad press the HD DVD format had received in the CES, Toshiba debuts a new marketing campaign in an effort to attract cash-conscious U.S. consumers.

50 Chinese websites, including China.com.cn, People.com.cn and 163.com, have agreed to stop providing access to pirated movies.

A House of Commons public spending watchdog has accused BBC chief Mark Thompson of illegally supporting Microsoft. In failing to ensure iPlayer on demand services are available to all licence fee payers he has been blinded by the novelty of the internet, it's charged.

Ritek, the second largest Taiwan-based producer of optical discs, has signed a Qflix technology and IP licensing agreement with US-based Sonic Solutions, a global provider of digital media software, according to press materials released by the companies.

CyberLink demonstrated its latest offerings for premium TV-on-PCs, TV-on-the Go, and placeshifting TV solutions during CES.

At the company's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony demonstrated Blu-ray movie discs embedded with a lower-resolution version of the film for portable devices.

Verbatim is showing off an expanded line of Blu-ray writable media at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. While already having 2x BD recordable (BD-R) and BD rewritable (BD-RE) media on the market, the company is showing 6 new BD products scheduled to begin shipping in the first half of 2008. The new products include 4x BD-R discs, Single-sided Double-layer (DL) 2x BD-R and BD-RE discs, Mini BD-R and BD-RE discs and 1-2x BD-R LTH TYPE discs.

AT&T are looking for ways to scan customers' communications for copyright violations According to Brad Stone of the New York Times.

Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD-DVD following Warner Brothers' recent backing of Sony's Blu-ray technology, in a move that could sound the death knell of HD-DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end.

Ritek has unveiled a series of SSD drives that up the ante from the 32G they have now to 128.

Pioneer in collaboration with Sonic Solutions, TitleMatch Entertainment Group and Primera Technology, announced today the demonstration of a fully-functional Qflix DVD-on-Demand Service with CSS encryption in its CES.

Maxell introduced a lens cleaning solution ideal for the active Blu-Ray & HD DVD users as well as PS3 and X-box 360 gamers.

Panasonic said on Sunday it developed a system allowing consumers to send high-definition video to a television from a video player or gaming console without cables.

Verbatim will begin shipping the world's first 2x-speed HD DVD-R (recordable) and HD DVD-RW (rewriteable) discs this quarter.