May 3, 2013
This is by no means a legal document and don't think that this substitutes for the opinions of an officer of the court. Let me be clear - I'm going to present to you the research that I've done and what it means to me. It is NOT legal advice. Now that is out of the way, lets get to the heart of the matter on whether buying second-hand software legal or illegal.
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February 15, 2013
Computers were once under our control. We could run any software we wanted on them, and the companies that manufactured the computer had no say. Today, computers are increasingly being locked down. Apple and Microsoft rule over their app stores with an iron fist, deciding what we can and can’t do with our devices. We live in a world where changing an iPad’s default web browser or email app is a crime.
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December 28, 2012
When you pay Amazon some money for a Kindle eBook, you probably think it’s yours now. I mean, you paid some money, you got some content, and now you have it, just like any other book you buy on a brick-and-mortar store. Well, that’s wrong. Actually, you didn’t buy anything, and you don’t own that book you just paid for.
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November 28, 2012
Digital Rights Management is the latest evolution of copy protection. It’s the biggest cause of user frustration today, but is it justified? Is DRM a necessary evil in this digital age, or is the model it supports no longer valid? Join me, as I explain all about DRM, why it’s needed, and why it just doesn’t work.
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September 12, 2012
This is pretty new ground - what happens to your legally purchased MP3 collection when you die? When one of the least trustworthy British newspapers around reported that Bruce Willis was going to sue Apple because he couldn’t bequeth his digital music collection, the Internet at large jumped at the chance to spew their vitriolic Apple hate. The story was completely false of course - but it raised an important question worth considering - who does own that mp3?
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August 23, 2012
Since I’ve decided not to buy games from Steam, I need to find other sources. Many of them are actually worse than Steam itself. Ubisoft’s store is baffling and full of annoying DRM. Electronic Art’s Origin service is more functional and less distracting, but worse than Steam overall. And Gamestop has done an excellent job of ruining the Impulse service since it bought it from Stardock. What’s a gamer to do?
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April 26, 2012
Digital Rights Management continues to plague many ebooks, making transfer between devices difficult. If you enjoy the sci-fi and fantasy genres, however, you’re in for a treat. Tor, one of the genre’s most prolific publishers, is going DRM-free. The books will be available from the same retailers that currently sell Tor ebooks, but the company [...]
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January 18, 2012
There are few companies easier to bash than Ubisoft when it comes to copy protection. The company has long used an activation scheme on most of its games that ties activation to your computer’s hardware configuration. This means that when you change your hardware, you have to re-activate your Ubisoft games before they’ll run. Such a process isn’t entirely unheard of in software.
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December 15, 2011
Ever since the Internet began, online piracy has been a big problem with the two biggest casualties being the music industry (RIAA) and the movie industry (MPAA). The Internet made it extremely easy to download whatever people wanted and the music & movie industries responded with copy protection measures, including the infamous and universally hated Digital Rights Management (DRM).
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September 7, 2011
Watch everything on your favorite DVD, including special features and commentary, from a single file on your hard drive. With the right software you can overcome the file protections on your DVDs and watch them on your computer anytime. BDlot DVD ISO Master is a free piece of software that does what very few free programs can do.
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June 16, 2009
Mobi and PRC are the default ebook formats used by the popular MobiPocket. In 2005, the company was aquired by Amazon, so yes, even the celebrated Amazon Kindle now works with these files. When you buy an ebook online from one of the major retailers, you can be pretty sure you’re getting a Mobi book. [...]
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March 3, 2009
Online music stores have brought tons of advantages. You can buy your favourite music without ever leaving your seat, and buy single songs instead of whole CDs. Sadly, they also brought some bad things; DRM amongst others. With internet as a news medium, a lot of companies saw their chance to deliver a strike to [...]
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November 22, 2008
Sometime last year, you bought yourself an iPhone and then realised that a better user experience is indeed possible! So sometime this year, you took the next logical step and upgraded your PC to a Mac – perhaps a Mac Mini to start out small, or a laptop, or even a sexy 20″ iMac. Now [...]
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July 3, 2008
DoubleTwist is a Windows-only desktop application which liberates your media from the Digital Rights Management (DRM) labels and lets you share it with your friends and also synchronizes it with various other devices including external devices such as Blackberry, Nokia N Series and Sony Ericsson Walkman Series phones. It can also convert the songs in [...]
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June 11, 2007
What is indie music? Basically, indie music (from independent) refers to the music that is independent from the commercial music industry and usually associated with autonomous, label-free artists/bands. Below you’ll find some of coolest indie music repositories on the web. (1) iJigg iJigg is a community where independent artists post their tracks for iJigg users [...]
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