Audio/Video

Despite staunch legal opposition from Hollywood, a new package of DVD-copying software is headed for online and offline retail shelves.
DVD drive company Tritton Technologies on Friday said it agreed to distribute software called DVD CopyWare, created by United Kingdom-based Redxpress. Like software from rival 321 Studios, which has been sued by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the CopyWare package will make a perfect copy of DVDs to a blank disc.

RealNetworks Inc. Wednesday announced the launch of the Helix Player project, an open-source effort to deliver an open media player for Linux, Unix and Solaris. In addition, Kevin Foreman, general manager of the Seattle, Wash., company said the Helix Player will feature the company's RealAudio and RealVideo binaries to take to Linux, Unix and Solaris the same type of media playback capabilities that Windows and Macintosh environments enjoy with RealNetworks' RealOne Player, which is available for free. Foreman spoke to eWEEK at the LinuxWorld confence here.

Use of several Internet file-sharing services declined the week after the music industry threatened to sue online music swappers, an Internet tracking firm said Monday. Kazaa and Morpheus -- two popular file-swapping services -- had 15 percent fewer users during the week ending July 6, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The firm tracks weekly use by people who sign on to the services from home.

The decline translates to about 1 million fewer users on Kazaa. About 41,000 fewer users signed on to Morpheus and the iMesh file-sharing service that week.

Source: Wired

Aspiring DJ Xiao Lin was prepared to beg, borrow or steal the 400 yuan (U.S.$48) she needed to secure a pass for master mixer Paul Oakenfold's Great Wall of China spectacular in April this year.

Source: ZDNet

Don't make a U.S. attorney angry--you wouldn't like him when he's angry.

A New Jersey man learned that the hard way Wednesday, and faces up to three years in prison and $250,000 in fine after pleading guilty to distributing a pirated copy of "The Hulk," the tale of wayward scientist who turns into a machinery-smashing monster whenever he gets mad.

Source: CNN

The embattled music industry disclosed aggressive plans Wednesday for an unprecedented escalation in its fight against Internet piracy, threatening to sue hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files online.

Source: Internal Memos

Source: Computer Weekly

Expert BCS members have warned movie fans not to try to emulate the realistic depiction of computer hacking seen in hit film The Matrix Reloaded.

Source: BBC

Global blockbuster The Matrix Reloaded has been banned in Egypt because of its "violent" content and because it tackles "religious themes".

The country's censorship board said the film's storyline, about the search for the creator and control of the human race, may cause "crises".

Violent scenes also had the potential to "harm social peace", a statement said.

The first Matrix movie was released in Egypt but was criticised by Islamic newspapers for promoting Zionism.

Source: CNN

Hip-hop star Nelly did it. Madonna is doing it. And British rock group Radiohead plans to do it -- boost music sales by reaching out to fans through mobile phones.

With sales of CDs on a three-year slide, the music industry sees mobile phones as powerful outlets for promoting artists and distributing music for profit -- something it failed to do in the early days of Internet music-swapping.