DVD Burners Will Continue to be Dominant Volume Optical/Removable Product Until 2011, But Significant Momentum for HD DVD and Blu-Ray Disc is Building, IDC Says

While DVD burners will continue to be the dominant volume product of the optical/removable storage market until 2011, due to commodity prices and almost universal compatibility, next-generation drives are ramping up, according to IDC. Significant momentum is building behind the blue laser formats: HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD). Marketing activities of both camps are accelerating, and more and more companies are joining one of the two or both format groups.

“Similar to DVD and DVD burners, blue laser DVD will need a three- to five-year ramp to reach mass-market volumes,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director for Removable Storage at IDC. “HD DVD needs to aggressively push volumes to neutralize BD’s advantage in support from consumer electronics (CE) and content companies.”

Other key findings include:

Continued PC market growth will give the CD/DVD market a positive outlook in 2007 and beyond. This is especially true for slim drives for laptop PCs.
Blu-ray disc needs to maintain support from its impressive lineup of consumer electronics (CE) and content companies, ensure that PS3 generates additional momentum, and stay within reach on product pricing.
HD DVD needs to show a clear price advantage over BD products, be more consumer friendly in terms of moving/accessing content, and provide easy licensing to second tier manufacturers.
Source: BusinessWire.

The team at Bling Software, publisher of 123 Copy DVD were quoted as saying, “Just like all consumer electronic products, popularity increases as the price decreases, there is no mystery how it all works”

Latest updates to 123 products. All products are now Vista compatible.

123 Copy DVD Gold

123 Copy DVD

123 Movies 2 iPod

123 Movies 2 PSP

Podmaxx has partnered up with iFrogz to allow you to create your own custom iPod cases. Take a minute to visit www.mypodmaxx.com and see the endless options available to for creating your very own case.

The closely followed court case in Finland that will ultimately decide whether DVD movies can be legally copied for personal use or not, is heading to the Finnish Appeals Court.

Finland’s DVD backup case goes to Appeals Court

Last week, Helsinki District Court sent shockwaves through the media industry in Finland and across the EU by ruling that the CSS encryption mechanism found on virtually all commercial DVD-Video discs can be cracked legally. The ruling stated that CSS cannot be described as “efficient copy protection mechanism” due the widespread availability of tools that allow cracking it. Finnish legislation, which is based on European Union Copyright Directive, clearly states that cracking “efficient” copy protection mechanism is illegal.

Now, the prosecutor in the case has announced that she will bring it to the appeals court. This will mean that the case will be postponed by several months. If the appeals court decides not to alter district court’s decision, the prosecutor can still ask the Supreme Court to overturn the original ruling.

The easiest and fastest DVD copy program available!

Dear XCopy9 Customers,

We have some very exciting news to announce. In order to deliver the best product available, the team at XCopy9 have been merged with 123 Copy DVD!!

What does this mean to you as an XCopy9 customer?

1. Free conversion from XCopy9 brand to 123 Copy DVD counterpart with more features.
2. More updates to meet the everchanging DVD,iPod and PSP technologies.
3. More Feature development.
4. Oppty to participate with our customer refferral program which means $$ to you.
5. More Efficient Technical Support

How it works:

XCopy9 converts to 123 Copy DVD Gold

XCopyDVD converts to 123 Copy DVD 07

XCopyPSP converts to 123 Movies 2 PSP

XCopyPod converts to 123 Movies 2 iPod

You will also recieve an oppty to upgrade to a different level product or purchase any product at a 50% savings.

Simply enter your XCopy9 Brand of Product License here to convert your product to 123.

http://secure.123copydvd.com/solo/products/custom/2452709/123upgradefromxcopy.asp

Please contact me directly with any questions at dan@123copydvd.com

USA will file piracy case against China

Next week, the US will file formal trade complaints against China after months of demanding a crackdown on pirated American movies, music and software.

The complaints will be filed with the World Trade Organization and will most likely escalate trade tensions between the two superpowers.

The complaints come after years of building a case of intellectual-property abuses against China.

The complaints claim that China has only prosecuted a small fraction of the street bootleggers and other pirates of American media.

In interesting fact to the whole case is that Microsoft, Apple and Pfizer have refused to support the case.

In another move to curb piracy in Asia, the MPAA has decided to distribute anti-piracy brochures to every school and library in Singapore. The brochures are meant to warn the citizens of Singapore about the wrongs of P2P and file sharing in general.

The brochures, entitled “Illegal File-Sharing: The Risks Aren’t Worth It” will be available in all 23 national Library branches as well as distributed to all of Singapore’s 164 secondary schools and 16 junior colleges.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) will be distributing over 200,000 copies of the brochure starting today.

The booklets note “that since many P2P applications require users to upload – often invisibly – content at the same time they are downloading, users may be exposing themselves to criminal liability as well.”

The decision to distribute the brochures began after the raids in Malaysia a month ago in which a large ring of piracy was busted.

“They found computers and databases of customers from all over the world and I’m afraid to say that a lot of those customers are here in Singapore. The gangs that are involved in this are organized crime groups, unquestionably organized crime groups,” revealed Michael Ellis, a senior VP for the MPAA International.

“And Singapore customers who are dialing or emailing their orders to Malaysia and asking for the products to be delivered here are involved and supporting organized crime. And I have to tell you, we know who you are and we’re providing that information to the authorities in Singapore. If you think that by buying one disc or one pirated DVD, you’re not involved in this, it doesn’t affect you, you’re wrong, it does,” says Mr Ellis.

Mr. Ellis also tried to hit pirates on an emotional level by pleading that “Today’s students are tomorrow’s creators, developers, and owners of intellectual property, and there is a very real danger that unless young people begin thinking meaningfully about the consequences of wholesale copyright theft, the future will be much less bright for the next generation of creators.”

It is interesting that the movie industry can continue to make record profits even though the “evils” of file sharing continue to grow.

Scientific American has brought an interesting idea into the format war: Porn counts. Of course, anyone who uses the Internet already knows this. I mean, of course I only search the web to read the articles, right. But apparently others are looking for a more interesting fare. Well, digging back a bit in history, they have pointed out that the last great format war, when Sony was also involved, went to VHS in part because of the porn industry and the sale of XXX rated material. The other part, which I well remember, was that there were only two machines which would use Beta; one was junk and the other was expensive. At the same time, the VHS people licensed their technology to anyone.

With the market for home rental today approaching $25 billion, both sides are eager to win, but up till now, Sony and the Blu-ray camp has not been a friend to porn. They have blocked any porn DVDs in their format and Disney has even refused to use any replicators for their discs if they also turn out porn.

“The reason they should want to work with us is that they are in a war with HD-DVD and in a war you would want as many people in your corner,” said Joone, the Digital Playground founder, adding that HD DVD has been of significant help in getting out titles.

You know, the porn industry could end this war today by announcing that they would only support the HD DVD side. If they did, millions of homes, read men here, would run out and have HD DVD in their home tomorrow. Finally, a reason to upgrade.

Last week, the MPAA announced they supported the “Curb Illegal Downloading on College Campuses Act (2007),” and MPAA head Dan Glickman said that the group was set to begin working with schools and administrators to put an end to movie piracy on University campuses.

The MPAA has compiled a list of American schools that make their so called “dishonor roll” and included the amount of students identified as downloading unauthorized movies.

1. Columbia University - 1,198
2. University of Pennsylvania - 934
3. Boston University - 891
4. University of California at Los Angeles - 889
5. Purdue University - 873
6. Vanderbilt University - 860
7. Duke University - 813
8. Rochester Institute of Technology - 792
9. University of Massachusetts - 765
10. University of Michigan - 740
11. University of California at Santa Cruz - 714
12. University of Southern California - 704
13. University of Nebraska at Lincoln - 637
14. North Carolina State University - 636
15. Iowa State University - 586
16. University of Chicago - 575
17. University of Rochester - 562
18. Ohio University - 550
19. University of Tennessee - 527
20. Michigan State University - 506
21. Virginia Polytechnic Institute - 457
22. Drexel University - 455
23. University of South Florida - 447
24. Stanford University - 405
25. University of California at Berkeley - 398

A few schools had the distinction of being on the RIAA and MPAA’s lists with Purdue having the highest combined numbers on both lists.

The question now moves on to how aggresive the MPAA will be and whether they will follow the RIAA into suing thousands of users, even if they are 8 years old or deceased

Bling Software, publisher of 123 Movies 2 PSP , 123 Copy DVD Gold, 123 Movies 2 iPod are endorsing the JoyTechs PowerGrip as a PSP must have.

By Paul Sinclair |

PocketGamer have managed to get their hands on JoyTech’s new battery charger solution for the PSP. JoyTech have produced a unit which is primarily a rechargeable battery pack designed to prolong your PSP playtime when you’re beyond reaching distance of a power socket.

Yet its design cleverly enables a further four functions: namely, a screen protector, a sunshield, a ‘comfort grip’ option and movie viewing stand.

Installation is simple, with the PowerGrip quickly attaching itself to the top side of the PSP with the aid of two screws driven into the two holes either side of the USB output. It’s a firm fixing (though care should be taken not to overtighten the connection), which then enables the unit to rotate around its attachment in order to fulfil its various functions.

When flipped over the front of the PSP, the handheld’s lovely screen is protected by the PowerGrip’s hard (albeit cheap) plastic backing (and in contact with its stiff foam interior lining to prevent damage).

Source: PocketGamer