Entertainment

Hoping to usher in a new form of highly portable and more secure digital music, SanDisk has unveiled a new form of flash memory that includes digital rights protection. SanDisk is touting TrustedFlash as a new, more secure platform for digital music, movies and games. The flash memory cards will be ...

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPA), which represents music labels worldwide, have begun offering up Digital File Check, a software program that can block or remove file-sharing programs from a user's computer and dele...

Film and television giant Viacom is said to be close to announcing a deal to buy video-on-demand site iFilm, a move that would give it an entirely new distribution channel for its deep well of content. Viacom, which owns MTV, CBS and Nickelodeon, among other TV properties, reportedly will pay about ...

The industry group representing major wireless telecommunications carriers is working on a ratings system for content, a move seen by some as a sign that those companies are preparing for widespread distribution of pornography and adult content to cell phones. With more handsets now equipped with hi...

The industry groups representing movie and music studios have joined Internet2, a consortium using higher-speed networks in college campus settings, saying they would examine possibilities for new content distribution models. The move by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recor...

Internet TV -- long hyped by Microsoft and other major computer industry players -- has a new advocate. A non-profit corporation is developing a free, open source, Internet TV (IPTV) platform with funding from technology industry luminaries Mitch Kapor and Andy Rappaport. The organization, Worcester...

A new study says that eDonkey has become the most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) network for sharing video files, a sign file-swappers are changing tactics and technology amid a crackdown on unauthorized sharing of copyrighted material. Cambridge, England-based CacheLogic said that P2P traffic makes up ...

After months of speculation, Microsoft has inked a deal with Hollywood to make a movie based on its popular science-fiction video game series "Halo." Universal Studios and Twentieth Century Fox agreed to pay Microsoft US$5 million plus up to 10 percent of domestic box office receipts. Universal wil...

In what could be a preview of an expanded product menu featuring more items delivered digitally, Amazon.com has begun selling short stories and novel excerpts from well-known authors. Amazon Shorts sell through their own storefront on Amazon for 49 cents each and will feature content from top author...

In what could be a preview of an expanded product menu featuring more items delivered digitally, Amazon.com has begun selling short stories and novel excerpts from well-known authors. Amazon Shorts sell through their own storefront on Amazon for 49 cents each and will feature content from top author...

In an aggressive move to entice dial-up surfers to upgrade to broadband service, BellSouth announced a deal with Napster yesterday that the Baby Bell hopes websters will find hard to refuse. Under the agreement, new subscribers to BellSouth's FastAccess DSL service will get a free 256-megabyte digit...

In a trial that could mark the arrival of more widespread on-demand television programming and further rock the traditional media advertising industry, digital video recorder maker TiVo said it would offer original content from the Independent Film Channel (IFC) for download over the Internet. The c...

The months of rumor and speculation about Amazon.com joining the digital music download business appear to be reaching a fever pitch and observers say it's only a matter of time before Amazon's music service debuts and makes a run at market leader Apple. Amazon could not be reached for comment on th...

Bidding to capture a piece of a potentially lucrative vertical area of search, Yahoo has launched a test of an audio search engine that gives users the ability to comb through some 50 million audio files, from audio blogs and other spoken word programs to downloadable songs and albums. The Yahoo Aud...

New data suggest legal downloading of digital music is experiencing dramatic growth worldwide, with the number of songs legally acquired online tripling in the first six months of 2005. The report said 180 million tracks were downloaded globally between January and the end of June. The same study, c...