Although several leading global brands have already launched or will soon offer 18x DVD burners, CMC Magnetics and Ritek, Taiwan's top two makers of optical discs, currently produce 18x DVD+R/-R discs only in limited volumes and the supply may fall significantly short of global demand, according to industry sources.

Derrow - the author of numerous mainly free audio/video tools - seems to have found his own way of protesting against people stealing his code. He has posted on his websites links to trial copies of popular DVD authoring tools Xcopy9 and Video Vault - as well as links cracks for them.

DVDs will soon be tracked with embedded radio transmitter chips to prevent copying and piracy, according to the company which makes movie discs for Warner, Disney, Fox and other major studios.

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InPhase Technology, the leader in holographic data storage, demonstrated the world's first commercial holographic storage product at IBC 2006.' The Tapestry 300-R enables 300 Gigabytes on a single disk at 20 Megabytes per second.

Celebrating the 50-year anniversary since the birth of the hard drive, Hitachi is also celebrating an areal density achievement of 345 gigabits per square inch (Gbits/sq. in.) using perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology.

The Recording Industry of America Association (RIAA) is trying a new legal dance in its p2p case against Paul Wilke.

Aamazon's new super-soar-away Unbox video download service might be more trouble than it is worth. According to Tom Merritt of Cnet, the beast phones home far too much even after it has been installed.

The iTunes Store is now offering 75 full-length movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films.

Skype announced that all French-based Skype users with a broadband internet connection can make unlimited SkypeOut calls to landlines in France for free.

UK Broadcaster Sky has suspended its broadband movie download service after a Microsoft security patch on Windows Media's digital rights management (DRM) was cracked.

TiVo has started selling its latest digital video recorder which is capable of displaying high-resolution TV signals, as the recording technology company seeks new subscribers among buyers of premium home theater systems.

The owner of one of the US's largest internet software piracy websites has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Toshiba and Memory Tech have developed a DVD disk with a third level of storage, which means it can record DVD and HD-DVD formats as well as a large amount of other information.

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Malaysian police have uncovered a major syndicate producing pirated digital video disc (DVD) versions of popular Hollywood movies, which were mailed to foreign clients who placed orders over the internet.

Amazon began selling movies and television shows in digital format on the Internet, fulfilling the expectations of market watchers.

Samsung has fought back against an Internet video clip which alleges that its new slimline mobile phone is easy to break.

A new compact DVD vending kiosk has been developed by TELeasy Corporation, a Dallas based company. The kiosk, which takes up less than 2 square feet of floor space, is intended for smaller retail locations.

Electronics manufacturer SanDisk is facing a legal fight over its use of popular MP3 compression technology. German officials seized MP3 players from SanDisk's booth at the IFA show in Berlin after an Italian patents firm won an injunction against the company.