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Filed under: Video, Web services, Apple, Microsoft

DefectiveByDesign: London and Manchester Calling

British readers be warned: the Free Software Foundation's Defective by Design campaign is coming to our side of the pond tomorrow in protest at the BBC's decision to make extensive use of DRM (and in particular MIcrosoft's DRM) in their beta iPlayer software. For those who are unaware of the iPlayer, the BBC is making its programmes available for 'catch-up' via the iPlayer - albeit only for 7 days after download.

The issue is certainly an interesting (and contentious) one, particularly as the BBC is a publicly-funded body so has to make the iPlayer platform neutral at some point in the future, and will only allow U.K. IP addresses access to the content. The protests are outside the BBC's London and Manchester studios tomorrow (Tuesday 14th August), with Download Squad paying the London gathering a visit.

Filed under: Internet, Video

Hackers learn to download streaming Netflix movies

NetflixEarlier this year Netflix announced a new service that lets you watch a limited number of videos online instead of waiting for the DVDs to come in the mail.

There's just one problem. You have to watch on Netflix's terms. The video player is browser based, and the movies are wrapped up in Windows Media DRM. If you want to want to copy a movie to a portable device for viewing on the go, you're out of luck.

Well, the smart folks over at the Rorta forums seem to have cracked the code, using Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player 11, FairUse4WM, and Notepad. The solution involves finding the URL of the video file, downloading it, acquiring the license key and then stripping the DRM. It's a bit involved, and will probably take longer than just sitting down and watching the movie. But hey, it's the principle of the thing, right?

[via Brent Evans]

Filed under: Video, News, Windows, Microsoft

Clarification: HD has been stripped from all versions of Vista

Clarification: 32-bit Vista can play HD - just not out of the boxYesterday, Jordan blogged an announcement from Microsoft's Steve Riley that Vista users will need to have 64-bit superpowers if they want the ability to play HD video. It turns out this isn't entirely true, as Engadget is reporting that Microsoft has clarified the complication: 32-bit versions of Vista can play HD - but not without help from third party folk like CyberLink and InterVideo. The blame game still places the ball in the big media studios' court, as it is they who dictated that HD support be stripped out of Media Player 11 across the board, not simply one version of Vista or another.

While the blame and complications are shifting around, I agree with Jordan's statement that the victims still remain the same: PC users, 32-bit and otherwise. Engadget is holding out that someone's going to cave before Vista ships, but I'm not so sure. Time will certainly tell, but for now it seems like Microsoft has had to strip yet another feature from Vista's drawing board.

Filed under: Audio, Video, Macintosh, Apple, Microsoft

Microsoft distributes WMV/WMA component for QuickTime

Flip4MacIt's not often that Microsoft distributes third-party tools on its own web site, but it looks like they're making an exception for Flip4Mac, a plugin for QuickTime Player that lets Mac users to watch WMV and listen to WMA files without downloading Windows Media Player. It supports pretty much all the formats that WMP9 does, and since it's a QT plugin, it'll also let you watch streaming Windows Media files inside Safari.

[Via Digg]

More on Microsoft-MTV Urge music store

UrgeLast night Bill Gates, assisted by Justin Timberlake, used his CES keynote to officially announced Urge, the new music and media store from Microsoft and MTV that we reported on a few weeks ago. The service will have two million songs, more than 100 CD-quality radio stations, and exclusive MTV content. Currently Urge.com is a "coming soon" placeholder, curiously hosted on a Sun server.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

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