DRM differences could cost billions of dollars

Entertainment companies risk losing hundreds of billions of dollars of potential income and the future of dozens of promising digital markets are at risk unless they can resolve differences over DRM, according to research firm iSuppli. The firm says that the success or otherwise of DRM technologies - both copy protection and conditional access systems - will determine the development and growth of digital content for both home entertainment and mobile platforms. But, it says, disagreements between the companies and industries over how DRM should be implemented are currently hampering growth. ...more

And also today (25-June-2001), for the record...

Here, in brief, are some of the day's other stories. The empire is growing You will recognise them by their collection of shiny CDs. The ranks of the AOL Internet Service (just one of the divisions of the AOL Time Warner conglomerate) have now grown, officially, to the 30 million mark. ...more

BT confirms broadband price cuts

BT has confirmed that it will reduce the price of its wholesale broadband products from 1 May 2007. The monthly rental that BT charges Internet service providers (ISPs) for its IPstream product will be cut by nine per cent. IP Stream is the service that ISPs use to provide broadband connections up to 8Mbps to end users. ...more

Web 2.0 requires 'intelligent' networks

Networks that sense where and how you connect to them are essential to development of web 2.0 applications, according to Cisco. Intelligent networks that sense where a user is and how they are connecting will form the basis of future web 2. ...more

Vista's OS X similarities could encourage switching - analysts

Microsoft Vista's 'uncanny' resemblance to OS X could backfire on Microsoft by making the switch from PC to Mac comparable to upgrading from Windows XP, according to analysts at JMP Securities. 'We believe that the fact that Vista is designed to be much like Apple's OS X will, in the consumer's mind, make the transition from using XP to Vista very comparable to making the transition from XP to Tiger,' the investment banker said. And the effect could be exaggerated once Apple replaces Tiger, the current version of OS X, with Leopard in the spring of 2007. ...more