A DTV tuner/decoder card for PCs is shipping from ADS Tech at $129, the aftermarket accessories company said Tues. It described its Instant HDTV as an add-in PCI card that turns a standard Windows XP PC into a terrestrial DTV receiver, with recording possible on hard drives or DVD/CD burners. Besides providing over-air DTV reception, the card acts as an analog cable TV tuner. The card comes bundled with SnapStream’s Beyond TV, which can produce overlays that provide information about the show as it’s being viewed, ADS Tech said. The application also lets users search for future broadcasts by title or keyword, and program them for time-shift recording. It also provides PVR-like functions such as letting users pause, fast forward and rewind live TV as well as recorded programs. The Instant HDTV card also comes with NeroVision Express, a DVD authoring program that automates the process of compressing the HD content stored on the hard drive for SD archiving on DVDs. The card is designed for PCs running Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.
Largely ignoring copyright infringement, BitTorrent (BT) creator Bram Cohen told ISPs how to manage heavy file-swapping traffic and said his P2P application can help push on-demand downloads over live streaming. Cohen, whose creation is said to facilitate at least 35% of Internet traffic, also addressed content industries’ plight at the Next Generation Networks (NGN) conference Tues.
INDIANAPOLIS Sony will make a million SXRD microdisplay panels at its Kumamoto, Japan, plant this year, SXRD Development Dept. Gen. Mgr. Shunichi Hasimoto told us. Most panels will be the 0.61” size used in 50W ($3,999) and 60W ($4,999) rear-projection TVs and the new VPL-VW100 ($10,000) front projector unveiled at the CEDIA show here, Hashimoto told us. With a 3-chip design employed, projected output translates to some 330,000 finished products, officials said. Sony has said it expects by year’s end the plant will be able to make 3 million units annually (CED Aug 17 p1).
With data-breach scandals fading in public memory, data brokers and federal officials Thurs. came to the defense of the industry as crucial for investigations and massive efforts such as Hurricane Katrina relief. They spoke on the first day of 2 of a workshop by the Dept. of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Privacy Office. Civil liberties groups and technology experts countered their arguments, ranging from skepticism of the usefulness of young data- mining technologies to criticisms of federal agencies’ implementations of decades-old Privacy Act provisions in contracting with data brokers.
A nonprofit publishers group continues to attack Google’s Print Library Project. In an statement last week, the Assn. of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) said that “in cases where the works digitized are still in copyright, the law does not permit making a complete digital copy for such purposes.” ALPSP voiced willingness to work with Google but said Google’s proposal to pause its digitization program until Nov. 1 isn’t an appropriate response (WID Aug 15 p2). ALPSP, whose members publish more than 8,000 journals, says Google should get permission before digitizing copyrighted work and including it in the program. Collective licensing agencies in the U.S. and U.K. might simplify the permissions process, ALPSP CEO Sally Morris said in the memo. ALPSP wants to keep discussing an opt-in solution with Google, saying it wants to avoid litigation. Meanwhile, the group is telling members that if they're unsure about Google’s venture, they should exclude all their works for now.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel announced Wed. a major push into home entertainment, including creation of a Centrino- style PC brand for the purpose: “Viiv,” pronounced as in “five.” The machines should be available starting first quarter 2006 from multiple system makers “worldwide” in “various shapes and sizes to fit different styles and sizes of homes,” the firm said at the Intel Developer Forum here. They will be suitable for games, movies, music, photos and other media, Intel said.
TiVo’s motion for summary judgment that its PVRs don’t violate Pause Technology patents was granted correctly, the U.S. Appeals Court, Federal Circuit, ruled Tues. The appeals court said the U.S. Dist. Court, Boston, was right to construe the “circular storage buffer” and “time interval of predetermined duration” PVR limitations central to TiVo’s defense.
The U.S. Dist. Court, Boston, correctly granted TiVo’s motion for summary judgment that its PVRs don’t violate Pause Technology patents, the U.S. Appeals Court, Federal Circuit, ruled Tues. The appeals court said the lower court was right to construe the “circular storage buffer” and “time interval of predetermined duration” PVR limitations central to TiVo’s defense. Pause sued TiVo for patent infringement in Sept. 2001. TiVo countersued, seeking a declaratory ruling that it wasn’t guilty of infringement.
There’s no need for legislation to change the nation’s antitrust laws, USTelecom, formerly USTA, said in comments filed late Fri. with the Antitrust Modernization Commission. The Commission was formed under a 2002 law to determine if antitrust laws should be changed. Four of its 12 members were appointed by the White House, 4 by the Senate and 4 by the House. USTelecom submitted testimony by former DoJ antitrust officials and a former FTC chmn. For example, James Rill, ex-DoJ antitrust chief, said it’s not only unnecessary but “unwarranted and unwise” to introduce legislation to modify the effect of the Trinko decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court said violations of the Telecom Act aren’t antitrust violations. Rill said Trinko was “entirely consistent with fundamental antitrust principles and strikes the right balance between antitrust and regulation.” Ex-FTC Chmn. Timothy Muris said it would be wrong to legislate rules against companies offering discounted bundled services. The history of antitrust enforcement “should give one pause about formulating aggressive rules against what is, at bottom, an important form of price competition,” Muris wrote.
A data broker snarled in a high-profile breach earlier this year has won a 5-year Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contract. ChoicePoint said Mon. the $20 million deal gives the IRS access to its custom data solutions. The award is for batch processing, which involves automated delivery and processing of data files, cutting the need for human intervention and enabling clients to generate relevant data on large populations in a timely fashion, ChoicePoint said. More than 25 federal agencies use ChoicePoint batch solutions to support their daily activities. The company in Feb. revealed the possible disclosure of data on more than 100,000 individuals in a breach, after which thieves defrauded numerous victims. Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Democrat Leahy (Vt.) called the deal “especially galling right now to be rewarding firms that have been so careless with the public’s confidential information.” ChoicePoint’s recent breach was scrutinized in recent Judiciary Committee hearings Leahy requested. “The dust has not yet settled and the investigations are incomplete on ChoicePoint’s lax security practices,” he said. “We should at least take a pause before rewarding such missteps with even more government contracts.” The senator added that Congress needs to study these contracts and the adequacy of their provisions to protect security and privacy and their penalties for failures. Leahy said the contract highlights the need for the legislation he and Chmn. Specter (R-Pa.) have drafted. The bill would place privacy and security front and center in evaluating whether data brokers can be trusted with govt. contracts that involve sensitive information.