Drm Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

TUAW on SOPA and PIPA: What they are and why we're against them

by Chris Rawson (Jan 18th, 2012)

By now, news about two bills making their way through the US legislative approval process, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), has spread like wildfire across the Internet, along with widespread criticism of both bills. As part of that criticism, if you're reading this on ...

Apple ID account/device limits gain attention

by Erica Sadun (Aug 9th, 2011)

Trevor Sheridan sent us a note earlier today, asking if we'd look at his blog post about encountering Apple ID limits with iOS devices. Although Trevor just now encountered this issue, the policy actually went into effect a couple of months ago, back in June. When you use Apple's new ...

Steve Jobs kills off the CD on Adult Swim's Robot Chicken

by David Quilty (Feb 7th, 2011)

It's no secret that Steve Jobs isn't a fan of the physical CD, preferring, of course, that his customers buy their music in his iTunes store. But what length is he willing to go to get rid of the CD for good? On the latest episode of Seth Green's grossly satirical stop-motion show Robot Chicken we ...

Mac App Store devs need careful code validation, otherwise downloads can be copied

by Michael Terretta (Jan 6th, 2011)

John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that Mac apps whose developers didn't follow Apple's advice on validating apps (link for registered Apple developers) can easily be copied by users. Gruber notes if Mac App Store developers are following Apple's advice, the technique for using a copied app ...

Final Cut updates due in March or April, Steve Jobs still sour on Blu-ray

by Mike Schramm (Jan 3rd, 2011)

Hardmac has kicked off the new year with some more rumors about Final Cut Studio being updated. We already knew (since the app wasn't updated last September) that Final Cut Studio has been due for some streamlining, and Hardmac says that, indeed, there are multiple beta versions running around. ...

AirPlay, Apple TV authentication and protected iTunes content

by Erica Sadun (Dec 21st, 2010)

Erica continues her hacking explorations into the Apple TV and AirPlay. Here's the thing. As far as I can tell, you can play back any content that plays back in your iPhone's iPod and video applications on any Apple TV. That includes DRM content, all that encrypted stuff that normally requires you ...

Humble Indie Bundle 2 offers more Mac gaming deals

by Mike Schramm (Dec 14th, 2010)

The Humble Indie Bundle is back for round two, which means that you've got another deal with some terrific indie games to run on your Mac, completely DRM-free. This time, you get Jonathan Blow's excellent time-shifting platformer Braid, quality puzzle game Machinarium, iOS favorite Osmos, and ...

HDCP may spoil your Apple TV fun

by Michael Rose (Oct 5th, 2010)

Given the minimal available output ports (just HDMI and TOSlink optical audio) on the Apple TV, it's no surprise that the low-cost HDMI to DVI cables used in some home media setups aren't supported. Unfortunately, if you're using HDMI converters or cables of the sort, you may be out of luck with the ...

Report: RIAA pressured Apple into creating iTunes LP

by Mike Schramm (Mar 9th, 2010)

This feature over at GigaOM has quite a few interesting insights about the iTunes LP program -- while Apple sells it wholeheartedly as "the visual experience of the record album," it appears the story behind the story is not quite so clean. According to an anonymous source in the industry (note, ...

Apple to use Fairplay for iBooks DRM?

by Mike Schramm (Feb 17th, 2010)

FairPlay, you'll remember, is the oft-maligned (yet still much-used) DRM that locks down content on the iTunes Store, and rumor has it that Apple's bringing that code to a whole new media. The LA Times tech blog says that sources in the publishing industry are hearing that Apple will lock down the ...

Billboard: iTunes prices up, sales down

by Mike Schramm (Apr 13th, 2009)

I coulda told you this, though I am a little surprised that we've seen the results so fast. Despite iTunes having put the new tiered pricing into effect just last week, Billboard is reporting that they've already seen sales drop on the higher-priced tunes. The iTunes Top 100 chart has 40 different ...

iTunes drops all DRM, adds variable pricing

by Aron Trimble (Apr 7th, 2009)

In the never-ending battle of where to spend your George Washington's (the paper ones, that is) some battles are won and some battles are lost. In this case, however, it's turned into a bit of a draw. As we previously mentioned the day hath befallen on which iTunes now "features" a variable pricing ...

Presidents of the USA release iPhone app with their music in it

by Mike Schramm (Feb 20th, 2009)

Wired has a story up about an interesting tactic The Presidents of the United States have put into action (no, not the Commanders in Chief, the pop punk trio from the '90s). While they already do have their music in the iTunes Music Store, one of the band's members has joined a company that makes ...

iTunes pricing and DRM schemes updated for 2009

by Robert Palmer (Jan 6th, 2009)

Phil Schiller today outlined Apple's new pricing scheme for iTunes music, and announced additional music that will be available DRM-free. In April, depending on the label, songs will be available at three price points: 69 cents, 99 cents, and $1.29. Apple says many more songs will be priced at 69 ...

MacBook Pro users getting bitten by HDCP

by Michael Rose (Nov 19th, 2008)

Yesterday, our buddy David Chartier at Ars and Sam Oliver at AppleInsider both publicized an issue that's been burning up the support boards for a while now: iTunes video rentals and purchases in HD are flagged for HDCP control, and in cooperation with the new Mini DisplayPort connector on the ...