Folks who enjoy tinkering with their Android phones have gotten a rude surprise this week: As far as Netflix is concerned, their phones no longer exist, and can no longer install or update the streaming video app. [More]
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HP Pushed Firmware That Makes Printers Reject Third-Party Ink Cartridges
By 9.21.16
Consumers like to think that we can use the items we’ve legally purchased however we see fit. If we want to cover our new backpack with rhinestones or use third-party ink cartridges in the printer that we bought, who is the manufacturer to stop us? Yet while backpacks might stay Bedazzled, you can’t always use whatever ink you want in your printer. [More]
Should “Locked” Digital Content Be Labeled So You Know What You’re Buying?
By 8.5.16
Have you ever “purchased” an ebook, mp3, or video only to found you can only access it on a certain number or type of devices, or that it must be played through a specific player, or only accessed when you’re connected to the internet? Maybe that’s the sort of thing you’d like to know before you paid for this content. [More]
Google Chrome Has A Bug That Makes It Super Easy For Pirates To Purloin Streaming Video
By 6.27.16
Lots of things made our modern all-online, all-video era possible: Internet connections got faster, tech got cheaper, and so on. But the thing that made companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu willing and able to become household names in TV is a little invisible: it’s the ability to keep you paying for content. [More]
What Happened? Amazon Removes Half Of The Streaming Video I Bought
By 6.8.16
By now, most of us are aware that videos come and go from Amazon’s streaming offerings; that a movie available on Prime this month may be gone the next. There are even caveats in the Amazon terms of service that videos you purchase from Amazon may vanish from your online library — and there’s nothing you can do about it. What you don’t expect is for half of a video you buy to suddenly disappear without explanation. [More]
You Can Record Movies Off Netflix, Or Music Off Spotify, But You’re Not Allowed To
By 11.6.15
Once upon a time, in the long-long ago bygone years of the 20th century, teenagers communicated their feelings through a medium known as the mix tape. Those of us who can remember tape cassettes can remember hitting “record” on a boom box at exactly the right moment when a favorite song started on the radio or, as the ’90s waned into the shadow of Y2K, recording tracks off a bunch of CDs into one themed tape to play in the car or slip into the hand of a not-so-secret crush. [More]
TPP: Leaked Chapter Shows Trade Agreement Could Have Big Effects On Drug Prices, Privacy
By 10.13.15
The 12 countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership finally came to an agreement on the more-or-less final draft on October 6. Each member nation soon gets to kick off its own ratifying process, but until that formally begins, the entire text is still a closely-held secret. [More]
John Deere Wants To Be Able To File Copyright Claims Against The Way You Use Your Tractor
By 4.22.15
In the modern, digital economy, there are a whole lot of things you buy but still technically don’t own. Nearly all entertainment, for example: digital books, video games, music, and so on. Other software, too. But as basically everything continues to become some kind of computer in a specialized body, plenty of other goods are starting to be subject to licensing, copyright law, and non-ownership problems, too. Like tractors. [More]
Adobe’s Newest Security Hole: Telling The World What You Do With Your Library Books
By 10.7.14
It’s pretty great that in the modern age, you can borrow digital books from libraries, to read at home on the computer or e-reader of your choice. It’s a lot less great that the piece of software most library books use is apparently spying and collecting data on every word you read. [More]
Microsoft Swears It Isn’t Going To Change Its Mind Again On Xbox One DRM
By 8.28.13
First, Microsoft announced that the upcoming Xbox One gaming console would severely restrict a user’s ability to resell games or play previously owned titles. Then Sony announced that its competing PS4 wouldn’t have any new restrictions, and Microsoft was basically forced to give them up. But that hasn’t stopped some consumers from being justifiably concerned that, once Xbox One has garnered a substantial user base, Microsoft will pull an about-face and institute the harsh digital rights management programs it had intended. [More]
Darkspore Players Freak Out, Assume EA Has Abandoned Their DRM Servers
By 7.1.13
While SimCity got all of the publicity and helped publisher EA win a major award, it’s certainly not the only single-player game out there that requires you to be connected to the publisher’s server all the time. For example, there’s Darkspore, another EA/Maxis title released in 2011 that some gamers still enjoy. Sometimes. [More]
EA Insists SimCity Must Be Connected To Servers, Gamer Figures Out How To Run It Offline
By 3.15.13
For the swarms of angry EA customers ticked off at the company for forcing players to play the new SimCity in an always online mode, the slow, problem-riddled servers have been a huge annoyance. Calls for EA (our Worst Company In America 2012) and Maxis to allow gamers to play in offline mode have been dismissed by the company as not possible, but lo and behold, one game modder is claiming it is quite possible. [More]
New In The SimCity Saga: Maxis Promises More Servers, Refund Rumors Abound
By 3.8.13 — Updated: 3.9.13
Here’s Why Digital Rights Management Is Stupid And Anti-Consumer
By 11.26.12
Comparisons of downloadable books and music to their ancient, tangible predecessors are an old, old meme, but sometimes the comparison applies. For example: if reader Synimatik had bought a paperback book a few months ago and picked it up to read now, the book’s pages wouldn’t magically glue shut just because the credit card she normally uses at the bookstore has expired. That’s how it works when you want to read a book downloaded from Barnes & Noble, though. [More]
Amazon Erases Customer’s Kindle, Wishes Her Luck In Finding Somewhere Else To Shop
By 10.22.12
Compared to ebooks, physical books might have the disadvantage of being heavier and subject to wear and tear. But you know what’s nice about a printed book? Amazon can’t come to your house, take it off your shelf and tell you to go buy it somewhere else. [More]
Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
By 11.23.11
One day in October, Kindle owner Ryan couldn’t log in to his Amazon account. He reset his password: no luck. According to Amazon representatives, the account is now “on hold,” but no one can tell him what that means. He was told that someone at Amazon would call him back within 24 hours. That was almost a month ago. [More]
UltraViolet Restrictions On Green Lantern Makes Reader Feel Ultraviolent
By 10.17.11
Reader Justin is steaming because he just found out that the promised “digital copy included” isn’t actually a normal file, but a license to watch the flick through the movie industry’s new “UltraViolet” system. [More]
Warner Bros. Batman-Blocks Apple Users From Digital Copy
By 8.16.10
Apple enthusiast David was annoyed to discover his Blu-ray of the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood won’t allow him to use the download voucher to get a digital copy of the film that will play on his Mac or iPod. He feels misled because he had no such trouble with previous digital copy transfers, even from other Batman movies. [More]
