The new technology allowing consumers who buy entertainment in physical formats to consume it online for no additional cost has gone live and is going global, with launches in the UK this Christmas, Canada in 2012 and elsewhere in 2013.

Judges this year have shot down two unorthodox tactics used by the entertainment industry to collect money from file-sharers. But that hasn’t stopped content companies from trying yet another new trick—one that has so far escaped the scrutiny of the courts or the media. We’ve discovered that content owners are…

As a standalone service, Turntable.fm launched less than a year ago, and it has already gained considerable buzz among the tech and music elite in addition to over $7 million in funding from undisclosed investors. Buzz is great, but will Turntable turn into an actual business? It will be a…

Photo distribution company Getty Images has finalized its acquisition of stock images service Photolibrary as it seeks to expand its international reach, particularly in Asia. This is the second acquisition Getty has done this year, the first being April’s purchase of digital rights management company PicScout.

With growing adoption of new unlimited-access media rental services like Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) and Spotify, I anticipate a future crunch point, around transportability of customers’ libraries to parallel services.

Comcast-owned white label video service thePlatform has struck a deal with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) that will add PlayReady and its Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming into thePlatform’s video management system. The two companies services will get their first combined use as part of Comcast’s “TV Everywhere” service, Xfinity, an online…

In the U.S., copyright law generally makes it illegal for consumers to do things like copy a DVD, even if it’s for personal use. But in Canada, there’s no such restriction—meaning it’s also perfectly legal to do things like “mod” a videogame system or jailbreak an iPhone. But that may…

BlueBeat Music has found one way to stand out among the plethora of music streaming and download sites: stream The Beatles’ catalog (original and remastered) free and sell the tracks as MP3s for a quarter a pop. Whether or not you have the rights. (I’m listening to Run For Your…

DRM provider Intertrust has had a tough enough time making inroads into the U.S. market with its promises to guard content providers’ content from piracy. On top of the marketing issues—aside from the resentment DRM provokes from consumers, many digital device manufacturers are reluctant to spend additional capital on licensing…

Not the biggest shock ... A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) Tuesday, prohibiting the company from manufacturing and distributing its RealDVD software. The injunction follows a temporary restraining order issued last October at the request of movie studios owned by Disney (NYSE: DIS), Sony (NYSE:…

The e-book market may have just hit its tipping point: Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest bookseller, has acquired indie e-book seller Fictionwise for $15.7 million in cash. It’s part of the company’s plan to launch an e-Bookstore later this year. Fictionwise, which runs a trio of sites—Fictionwise, eReader and…

A few eye-catching items from the tsunami of post-shipping Kindle 2 coverage: — What would Kindle do?: Not all K2s work out of the box and it’s Amazon’s bad fortune that the device sent to author/blogger/consumer advocate/Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) shareholder Jeff Jarvis turned out to be one of them. Jeff…

The percentage of internet users who bought a CD in Q3 fell to 22 percent from 25 percent last year, according to an online survey by market researcher NPD. Oddly enough, that’s still better than the 15 percent of web users who paid for a music download last quarter. Both…

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is bundling a form of copyright protection software into new MacBooks that has some buyers up in arms. Called High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), the technology prevents MacBook owners from playing movies they’ve purchased through iTunes on many external monitors, TVs or projectors—meaning they’re stuck watching flicks…

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is talking to the three remaining major labels about adding more DRM-free, MP3 tracks, a year after EMI signed on. UMG, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG and WMG are still talking to Apple, and at least one is close to an agreement, this News.com report says. Meanwhile Amazon’s…

—YouTube runs full-length shows : YouTube is debuting full-length programming, starting with episodes of Star Trek, Beverly Hills, 90210 and MacGuyver (all owned by CBS). USA Today says it’s a push to better compete with challengers like Hulu, Veoh and blip.tv that currently offer full-length clips from partners like NBC,…

Last Friday, Reuters filed a story with the title: “Hole in Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) software allows free movie downloads”. The allegation, backed up by famed security expert Bruce Schneier, was that the company had taken a shortcut to boost the speed of online movie streams from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), resulting…

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is doing a new rendition of an old classic… The retailer’s online music wing has told customers who bought DRM’d tracks from it that come October 9, it will no longer support these tracks, meaning they cannot be backed up or transferred to a new computer. They…

In a week that will see heavy coverage of MySpace Music when it launches, SanDisk (NSDQ: SNDK) has announced an ambitious venture to sell its microSD memory cards pre-loaded with DRM-free MP3 music from all the four majors EMI Music, *Sony* BMG, Universal Music Group, and *Warner Music Group*. The…