Microsoft’s new image format is poised to compete with JPEG. Windows Media Photo was announced yesterday at WinHEC 2006, along with a comparison that favored WMP over JPEG and JPEG 2000 at 24:1 compression. With any luck, WMP will succeed where JPEG 2000 failed. WM Photo support will be included in Windows Vista, and as an upgrade to Windows XP. Read the rest of this entry »
Warner Bros. announced yesterday that it will sell movies and TV shows online, and distribute them using BitTorrent. In the same vein as my editorial Pirates are customers too, Warner Bros. realises “If we can convert, 5, 10 or 15 percent of the illegal downloaders into consumers of our product, that is significant.” Read the rest of this entry »
Media companies are reluctant to embrace electronic distribution of music, movies, and television. The entertainment industry tends to view the Internet as a threat to traditional sales rather than as a new way to reach customers. The RIAA and MPAA have been addressing the “problem” by suing P2P users into submission, and these efforts have left a wake of diminished privacy, innocent victims, and reduced freedoms. Read the rest of this entry »