Tag: consumers
New Zealand's guilt-on-accusation copyright law postponed
New Zealand, as we’ve previously reported, wants to take a hard line against people accused of copyright infringement by cutting them off without any attempt to ascertain whether they’re actually guilty.
The copyright owners argue that this is necessary, because successfully prosecuting someone is a time-consuming and costly business. Of course, copyright owners have a history of falsely identifying acccused infringers.
As a result, there’s been uproar in the country, with many across the world “blacking out” their social network profile pictures to draw attention to the law, due to come into force this Saturday (28th Feb 09).
Thanks to their actions, and the media spotlight placed on the country from across the world, the law has now been postponed. Although it’s only postponed for a month, it’s still a major victory for consumers, who’ll now have a chance to input on a code of practice for the implementation of the law.
If no agreement is reached on the code of practice, then the law will be suspended further, and the government has also promised a review of the effectiveness of the law six months in, to see if it’s had any effect on volumes of filesharing. My guess? It won’t.
(via Stuff.co.nz)
Sandisk reveals one-button-backup USB flash drives
Now that flash memory has got to a price competitive with mechanical storage, we’re starting to see it crop up in all sorts of places. One of those places is backup, where the speed of the memory presents a clear advantage over a traditional disk drive.
With that in mind, Sandisk has brought out a new backup-focused USB drive, which is the first in the world to work its magic with just a button press – no software installation needed. The capacities aren’t huge yet – the biggest is 64GB – but that should cover the contents of ‘My Documents’ for the vast majority of consumers.
The SanDisk Ultra Backup will go on sale in April, and cost between $40 (£28) and $200 (£137) depending on the size you plump for. How big is your “My Documents” folder? How about when you don’t include the porn? Let us know in the comments.
Sandisk Press Release
Related posts: MicroSD just got bigger – 16GB SanDisk MicroSDHC for £44.99 | SlotMusic – albums on SD cards from SanDisk
Spore DRM finally eased
Call it a victory for pester power if you like, but EA has just released a deauthorisation tool for their DRM system in Spore. As previously reported, Spore would only let players install the game five times before forcing you to buy a new copy. This patch allows you to ‘de-authorize’ a computer, meaning that you get one of your credits back.
Interestingly, the de-authorization process doesn’t involve uninstallation, so you can leave it sat on your hard drive, and just de- and re-authorize as necessary. Of course, if your hard drive corrupts, then you’re not going to be able to get that installation back, but do you know anyone who’s lost five hard drives that way, ever?
Spore Deauthorisation Patch (via RPS)
Related posts: Spore becomes most pirated game ever | SPORESUIT: EA sued over Spore DRM
Spore fans threatened with game ban over DRM discussion
The company vs consumer battle between EA and its customers is really starting to kick off. The debate centres on the DRM slathered all over Spore – the new game from Will Wright, creator of The Sims. The digital rights management system that EA built into the game has led fans to plaster Amazon with bad reviews, and even create protest species within the game…
AmberFin: Snell & Wilcox launches end-to-end content creation solution: good news for consumers
At first glance, the news that a well-established company which supplies services to the broadcast industry has launched a new service for handling video content may not seem particularly relevant to consumers. Yet Snell and Wilcox’s work is something that most TV viewers in Britain will have experienced even if they’ve never heard of the company.
Yesterday I spoke to Joe Zaller (VP Corporate Development) and Simon Derry (CEO) from S&W. It’s clear that broadcasters, ISPs and telecoms companies need a system like AmberFin if they’re to deliver digital video in a variety of formats to an ever more demanding consumer, in high quality, while still making money.
AmberFin should create a win-win situation for everyone…
How much does Apple care that "iPhone 2.0" has been hacked already?
Just a week after Apple launched the iPhone SDK, it’s been hacked.
Pretty fast going, but unsurprising.
Let’s not think that Apple didn’t see this coming a mile off…
Christmas Wii shortage doesn't stop it getting a customers' choice award
As if it weren’t enough that we’ve already declared it the 2007 winner, and despite stock shortages yet again, Nintendo’s Wii has scooped a Customers’ Choice award from the independent review publishers Reevoo.
The Wii achieved an overall score of 8.78 out of ten, compared with 8.25 for the PlayStation 3 and 7.65 for the Xbox 360, based upon reviews from genuine purchasers.
High-value consumers want Net Neutrality: no two-tier Internet
Tim Berners-Lee has spoken out against it, now new research suggests that high-value Internet consumers in Europe want flat-rate pricing on their broadband service without Internet Service Providers (ISPs) placing restrictions on what they can access.
JupiterResearch, which carried out the Europe-wide study, is urging ISPs not to supply faster, prioritised Internet access only to a select group of web sites that pay for improved performance.
29% of consumers questioned said that they desired flat-rate, unlimited broadband, while 16% said they wanted no access restrictions.
