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"Textcasting," Anyone? - Check out Slate's latest podcasting experiment. By Andy Bowers

For the last several weeks, Slate editor June Thomas and I have been inserting the full text of "The Explainer" into each day's "Explainer" audio podcast.
Brilliant.

MPAA turns attention to USENET, takes on Torrentspy, Isohunt, others

The targets are various high-traffic web sites that facilitate piracy using services like BitTorrent, eDonkey, and USENET. The MPAA hopes that shutting down these web sites will make it more difficult for the "pirate networks" to accumulate and distribute copyrighted material.
Unlikely that this will help, but from a Societal Goodness(tm) perspective, this is is a better strategy than allowing the networks to be sued for enabling it.  These sites are much more like Napster 1.0 than Grokster.

Forcing the analog sunset: the ugly side of the HD revolution

Although AACS includes, among other things, the ability to allow content owners to determine what kinds of outputs HD video is directed towards, the license also includes a forced sunset for most of those outputs. Put simply, AACS licensees must eliminate analog outputs on consumer electronics devices by 2013 to remain in compliance with the license. Forced obsolescence it is.

Yahoo Music exec suggests we'd all be better off without DRM

The head of Yahoo Music thinks it would be all good. Speaking at Music 2.0 (it's like Web 2.0, but with a beat), Dave Goldberg suggested that the RIAA and member labels give sales of non-DRMed music a try.

National Archive movies available on Google Video

In a joint press release today, Google and the United States National Archives announced the immediate availability of 104 films (well, they announced 103, but forgot about one WWII clip) from the Archives on Google Video.

Slashdot | iPod Takes Japan by Storm

Despite an array of well-entrenched Japanese rivals, such as Sony and Matsushita, the iPod had cornered 51.3% of the digital-music player market as of the end of 2005, up from about 32% in 2004, according to research firm BCN.
Could losing in their home town spur Japanese MP3 like Sony to design products that people lust over?

Slashdot | Interactive Commercial Utilizes Tivo Features

arketing officers at Kentucky Fried Chicken's Yum! Brands Inc. have developed a commercial containing a hidden message for the viewers to find using their DVR systems. The aim is to combat the use of DVR devices, like Tivo, to skip advertising by introducing interactivity.

Freedom to Tinker » Blog Archive » How Watermarks Fail

All of this helps us to understand where watermarks are likely to be effective and where they’re not. The best case for watermarking is where each file is published in a single version, with a watermark in a location that is not disclosed to the public and is not implemented in a device available to the public.

--Ari