Slysoft says the new version of its AnyDVD programme allows users to make “backup security copies” from Blu-ray discs
The claim is a blow to Sony which developed the Blu-ray format.

The discs are protected by an anti-piracy system called BD+.

When it launched in 2007, developers bragged that it would not be cracked for 10 years.

SlySoft says it hacked the BD+ technology in November of last year.

It decided to wait for the result of the “format war” between Blu-ray and HD DVD before releasing a full product.
BD+ is designed to react to attempts on its technology.

Its developers say they can re-lock copied discs, making them unusable in the future.
SlySoft reckons it is prepared for this.

Peer van Heuen from the company said: “The worst-case scenario is our boss locks us up with only bread and water in the company dungeon for three months until we are successful again.”

Posted on March 28th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Blu Ray | No Comments »

A court in the US has ordered a woman to pay $222,000 (~£109,000) in damages for illegally sharing music files over the internet.

The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 32, from Minnesota, to pay for offering to share 24 specific songs online - a cost of $9,250 per song.

The fine could have actually been the millions, as record companies said she illegally shared a total of 1,702 songs.

Ms Thomas was the first person accused of illegal file-sharing who decided to fight the case in court.

About 26,000 lawsuits have been filed against alleged file-sharers, but most defendants settle privately by paying a fine amounting to a few thousand dollars.
However, contesting the charge and losing will cost Jammie Thomas a staggering 222,000 dollars.

Her lawyer, Brian Toder, told the Associated Press Ms Thomas was reduced to tears by the verdict.

“This is a girl that lives from paycheque to paycheque, and now all of a sudden she could get a quarter of her paycheque garnished for the rest of her life,” he said.
The US record industry said people would understand the verdict.

Richard Gabriel, a lawyer for the music companies, said the verdict was important.

“This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not OK,” he told AP.

He said no decision had yet been made about what the record companies would do, if anything, to pursue collecting the money from Ms Thomas.

Posted on October 5th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Music | No Comments »

Social networking site Facebook has added a public-facing search function in a move which is likely to anger advocates of personal privacy.

The function will at first allow anyone who is not registered with the site to search for a specific person.

More controversially, in a month’s time, the feature will also allow people to track down Facebook members via search engines such as Google.

The firm said that the information being revealed is minimal.

The public search listing will show the thumbnail picture of a Facebook member from their profile page as well as links allowing people to interact with them.

But, in order to add someone as a friend or send them a message, the person will have to be registered with Facebook.

Users who want to restrict what information is available to the public or opt out of the feature altogether can change their privacy settings. They have a one month period to do so.

Despite assurances from Facebook, critics have expressed disappointment at the move.

“This move transforms Facebook from being a social network to being a quasi-White Pages of the web,” commented technology writer Om Malik in his blog GigaOm.

Mr Malik, and others, are concerned about the data trail that people are routinely leaving behind them on social networking and other sites.

There are concerns that personal content will become aggregated for marketing or other purposes.

Security experts have pointed out the dangers of publicising your date of birth - one of the options in a Facebook profile - because of the way it has been traditionally used as a way of identifying bank customers.

Facebook began life as a way of keeping US college students in touch with each other. Devised by Harvard drop-out Mark Zuckerberg, the site now accounts for 1% of all net traffic and is the sixth most visited site in the USA.

The social networking site is thought to have about 39 million members worldwide. Numbers have jumped since the firm removed the need to have an academic e-mail address in September 2006.

Founder of Facebook.com, Mark Zuckerberg, has been accused of illegally using both the concept and source code from competing site Connectu.com

Posted on September 6th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Facebook | No Comments »