Digital Media

MPAA celebrates new film agreement with China

China's government has raised the cap on the number of U.S. movies it allows to be screened in that country each year, according to the White House and the six major Hollywood film studios.

Negotiations between the U.S. and China have also yielded an agreement that will put a greater share of box-office revenues into the hands of U.S. filmmakers. This is only a marginal technology story because of the implications it has on online piracy.

The tech sector has long blasted Hollywood for not making films and TV shows more accessible at a more affordable more

Originally posted at Media Maverick

Student Facebook hacker gets eight months

It's normally parents who tell you they're doing something unpleasant for your own good.

However, this was also the explanation offered by 26-year-old Glenn Mangham, who was yesterday given eight months of incarceration for hacking into Facebook's inner sanctum.

The Guardian records Mangham's words to the court: "It was to identify vulnerabilities in the system so I could compile a report that I could then bundle over to Facebook and show them what was wrong with their system."

I know there are at least 14 altruistic people in the world. This court, though, seems to have more

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

Judge tosses law barring sex offenders from Facebook

Over the past few years, many people have asked whether sex offenders should be able to use social-media sites like Facebook and MySpace.

This week, a federal judge decided to throw out a Louisiana state law that prohibited sex offenders from joining or even looking at Facebook and other social-networking sites. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson, based in Baton Rouge, said the law was unreasonable and unconstitutional, according to the Associated Press.

The law in question went into effect in Louisiana last August. It deemed that anyone convicted of a sex offense against a minor or of video voyeurism more

Facebook, the Timeline, and the difference between consuming and creating

I've been meaning to write about Pixable, an excellent mobile app for keeping up with Facebook images on your iPhone or iPad. Unlike Facebook's own mobile app, which I find slow, complicated, and crash-prone, Pixable lets you dive into your social photo stream in a snap, see what friends are posting, and get out fast. There's more to it, too, and it's all good. It's a great app to pull up on that short elevator ride.

At least it was, until today's update of the app, which adds Facebook Timeline integration. Now whenever you more

Originally posted at Rafe's Radar

Google's Schmidt to sell $1.5 billion in stock

Google Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt intends sell about $1.5 billion worth of Google stock, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The sale is part of a pre-arranged trading plan.

Schmidt intends to sell up to 2.4 million shares of Class A stock in Google, whose shares finished the week at $604.64 per share.

As of December 31, 2011, Schmidt owned about 9.1 million shares of Class A and Class B common stock, or 2.8 percent of Google's outstanding capital stock. Following the sale, he'll own about 6.7 more

Microsoft mulls plan for new music service (exclusive)

Microsoft is in talks with some of the major record companies about creating a new music service, CNET has learned.

The software maker, which has a spotty record in digital music, has discussed creating a delivery service that would supply tunes to the Xbox as well as an upcoming Windows-based phone, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.

It was unclear exactly how this will differ from Microsoft's Zune Music Pass, which is the music service currently available to Xbox subscribers.

Negotiations are still in a preliminary stage and the two sides have yet to drill down into more

Originally posted at Media Maverick

Microsoft denounces Google for bypassing Safari privacy settings

Microsoft is clearly looking for any ammunition it can find to criticize Google and win over Internet users.

Today, Microsoft seized on a Wall Street Journal report that Google sidestepped privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser to track Internet users. The Journal story said the search giant and other ad companies used special code to get around Safari's privacy controls in order to track users on computers and mobile devices.

"Apparently, Google has been able to track users of Apple's Safari browser while they surf the web on their Apple iPhones, iPads and Macs," Ryan Gavin, General more

Originally posted at Microsoft

Netflix: We love DVDs, no we don't, yes we do

Netflix has a love-hate relationship with DVDs, and this month it appears that discs are back in favor.

The Web's top video-rental service posted a short note to its blog yesterday, notifying customers that Netflix has simplified the process of signing up for the $8 DVD-only rental plan. The company again appears to be tipping its hat to DVDs or else why bother streamlining the sign-up process.

"Starting today, our DVD and Blu-Ray loving audience can now easily sign up for a DVD only plan," the company wrote. "Starting at just $7.99/month, you can enjoy around 100,more

Originally posted at Media Maverick

Might Apple lose the iPad trademark? Welcome to the Twilight Zone

Apple's got a doozy of a feud going on with a Chinese company and the outcome may decide who owns the rights to the iPad brand name in the world's second biggest market.

That's not a typo. Pretty crazy but this is a crazy world and if the cards fall the wrong way, Apple conceivably could lose one of the world's most valuable trademarks in China. But first a brief recap.

Apple acquired the worldwide rights to the iPad trademark from Proview Technology in 2006. Four years later, Apple introduced the iPad and the product became