IBM has teamed up with four technology firms to try and guard digital movies and video against piracy, the company said Wednesday.
The five companies - Hitachi, IBM, NEC, Pioneer Electronic Corporation, and Sony -- said they will work together to use electronic watermarking to secure digital media. The so-called Galaxy Group will first apply the technology for DVDs, and later use it on digital broadcasts and networks that electronically distribute content.
The watermarking technology will tell a device or computer how many times -- if any -- the content can be copied.
The group says theirs is one of two proposals that will be evaluated by the Content Scrambling System Licensees. CSS is a body that licenses the scrambling technology for DVDs. Philips, Macrovision, and Digimarc submitted the other proposal.
Last week, Big Blue introduced its Madison Project to secure the digital delivery of downloadable music over the Internet.
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Tricking out the Rio: Diamond Multimedia's controversial Rio player may have achieved the cult status of an iMac or PalmPilot. If not, at least the de rigeur geekgear accessories are available.
Diamond's online store is now selling add-ons for the Rio. The Rio is a handheld device about the size of a deck of playing cards that can play MP3 files commonly distributed over the Net.
Rio-heads can now buy a new leather carrying case with a belt loop for US$30. The Rio's headphone cord can also be outfitted with a remote control pad that allows the user to more easily control the usual play, stop, and rewind-type of functions, for $20.
An optional 16MB flash memory upgrade costs $60 and allows users to store more music on the Rio.
