Armchair Arcade is proud to present its first official episode of Armchair Arcade Radio! This episode, hosted by Matt Barton, features material from each member of AA's staff: Bill Loguidice, Mark Vergeer, Christina Loguidice, and Chris Kennedy. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to tell all your retro computing and gaming friends! Stay tuned to Armchair Arcade for future episodes.

Episode One 48K version (23 Megabytes)
Episode One 128K version (60 Megabytes)

I just read this letter from the librarian of congress regarding some new exemptions to the DMCA. One of them specifically mentions videogames, but that seems mostly irrelevant to us (since it seems intended for folks testing for security flaws and dangerous malware). What's more interesting is item 5:

(5) Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

This is obviously a great relief to many enthusiasts of vintage consoles (as well as computers), since we all know that a great many such dongles are no longer available and must be hacked around.

It seems that DRM is finally going to be history in the near future as even an official spokesperson (Jonathan Lamy) for the RIAA acknowledges that there is no future in DRM.

For a long time the record-labels thought DRM to be the optimal antidote against piracy, but consumers were less enthusiastic. Because of continued consumer protests many online-music-distribution services - including Apple iTunes/iStore - decided to sell DRM-free music. Apple even allows people to convert DRM music to non-DRM music.

Of course it was not due to outspoken consumers that the music stores decided to switch their policy - it simply was because of DRM-free music outselling DRM-enabled-music.

So why don't we - consumers - do the same to other DRM crippled goods? Just stop buying rootkit copyright protected videogames and especially e-books and go for the DRM-free solution ;-)

Source: Google
http://torrentfreak.com/drm-is-dead-riaa-says-090719/

Throbbing headache when trying to run the PC version of Gears of War. It crashes when you try to start it on any computer. How come? Read more below...

The US copyright laws protect user generated content websites like Youtube and Veoh from lawsuits with the so called 'Safe Harbor clause'.

The Norsk (Norwegian) broadcasting service NRK has created a series of podcast in which the entire Beatle collection is to be found and it is even LEGAL!

Joe Biden, the man chosen by Barack Obama to become his vice-president, seems to be a strong supporter of copyright. His enthusiasm for civil rights seems to be a bit less.

Bad news for consumers who've bought their digital music through a site that supported Microsoft's Playforsure DRM (MSN Music) as the software company is stopping support of the format.

Scientist Rufus Pollock has published an article in which he claims that the optimum life span for copyright is around 14 years.