Apparently it’s illegal in Canada to copy music from a CD you bought to an iPod (or whatever). It’s simply not allowed, even if you’re not breaking any DRM in the process. (In the U.S., it’s illegal to copy a DVD to your computer’s hard drive because you have to circumvent the copy protection in the process.) Solution? Some sort of levy, which would ensure that “artists” make money even though you’re not re-buying their music.

The deal now is that an MP up there wants to introduce a CAN$75 “iPod levy” that would effectively legalize copying music from a CD you bought to your iPod. The levy has just been proposed, but if the Canadian legislature is anything like its American counterpart it’s going to be a little while before anyone even raises the issue again.

The idea of a levy isn’t new, per se—there’s already a levy on blank media (CD-Rs and the like) that supposedly help to make sure that “artists” get paid. (My hunch is that it goes right back to the record label’s coffers, but whatever.) Granted, you could be buying blank media to backup your PowerPoint presentation, so it’s not a 100 percent fool-proof thing, but it neatly solves the problem in a way that prevents people from having to re-think the entire concept of copyright in the 21st century.

This so-called iPod levy could also negatively affect people who buy iPod but don’t put any music on them—people like me, for example. I have an iPod touch and I dare you to find one song on there. (I pretty much just use it for like 10 minutes a day to check WoW.com before going to bed.) Why should I have to pay CAN$75, which is like US$4,000 these days, to subsidize other people’s habits?

Yes, I understand that the number of people who buy iPods and then don’t put any music on there is quite small, but I needed to fulfill my daily complaint quota.

Let’s turn it around, make it local to our fair American readers. Let’s say Congress, for whatever reason, creates and passes a law that says you’re 100 percent allowed to copy DVDs (legally bypassing the DRM) that you own to your hard drive, but that from now own all commercial DVDs come with a $10 tax on them to cover the “losses,” so to speak. Would you go for that?

Flickr

The news is a few hours old now: Valve recently distributed mock ads that, if anything else, implies that Steam will be available for Mac OS X.

Valve’s Steam is a popular online store for games. Customers browse the catalog of popular PC games—which includes recent hits like Modern Warfare 2 to DOS classics like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis—through a browser or the Steam desktop client. Games are playable once paid for with a credit card or PayPal, and after the desktop client has downloaded the content. No need to keep a game disc in your optical drive, no need to jump through copy-protection hoops.

Throughout it’s entire existence, Steam has been Windows-exclusive. Linux enthusiasts have gotten some of the games to work on their favorite build, and of course Mac users get BootCamp to run Windows on their computers. But Valve’s lucrative gaming ecosystem has been officially a Windows PC project.

Bringing Steam to Mac OS X involves certain obstacles, from a development point of view. Most of the games available on the catalog don’t have a Mac version, especially older games that originally ran on DOS. But since Apple’s PCs use the same hardware as Windows PCs, I don’t think Valve will have too much trouble, especially if Apple has started taking Valve seriously. A good number of games already have Mac counterparts/work on a Mac anyway.

So is Steam Coming to the Mac? Right now, your guess is as good as mine. But I’ve never known Valve to blatantly mislead its customers, so I’m leaning on “yes”. Only time will tell though, so stay tuned for updates.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Digital videos are the latest addition to the video technology. Gone are the days when everything was recorded onto tape, and we need to make sure nothing happened to those tapes or all the footage would be lost. This is the age of CDs and DVDs as everything has gone digital. Even today, we may have some of the video tapes carrying valuable memories. The risk of having your memories on a tape is that you will losoe them soon or later and day by day, as the picture quality reduces with the decay of the tapes. What can be done to preserve the memories for more decades to come? This is where a digital video stabilizer can be of great help.

A digital video stabilizer is one that can convert all the data on a videotape onto a DVD. The digital video stabilizer works such that it removes the copy-protection on the videotape, and then converts and copy the data on the videotape to the DVD. The digital video stabilizer also can copy video data from one videotape to another. Although some people may view that copying videotapes as illegal, it is perfectly legal to make copies for your own use. If you are interested in buying a digital video stabilizer, how do you find one? A simple search online will give you many places where you can buy a digital video stabilizer, and many have the option of shipping it directly to your doorstep. Prices for a digital video stabilizer can range from around $20 to more than $40. Although the digital video stabilizers work with any type of VCR, they are compatible with certain types of DVD recorders. Therefore, it is important to have a look at the compatibility of the devices that you own already before buying the digital video stabilizer as otherwise, you will have no use of your existing equipments.

The digital video stabilizer totally keeps you worry-free as now you do not have to worry about the decay of the video tapes you have. It is quite easy and secure to store your video footage on a CD or DVD, and a digital video stabilizer will make it easier for you to transfer that footage from tape to DVD with no loss of quality.

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Drm -Removal strips that eee-vil copy protection from most kinds of video and audio files.

My good buddy (and self-described Cheapskate fan) James is looking over my shoulder today, so I need an outta-the-park deal. And here it is: a Tiffen 52mm UV Protection Glass Filter for $4.99 shipped!…

Originally posted at The Cheapskate

Digital videos are the latest addition to the video technology. The days that you were worried about the video cassettes is now over and it is totally a new technology that you have to deal with. Now it is the time for DVDs and everything has gone digital. But there are many of us who still own some special and valued tapes that have some of the best memories in them. The only problem with having them on tape is that they are more likely to get ruined than if they were on a CD or DVD. What can be done? This is where a digital video stabilizer can be of great help.

dvd digital video stabilizer

A digital video stabilizer is one that can convert all the data on a videotape onto a DVD. The digital video stabilizer works such that it removes the copy-protection on the videotape, and then converts and copy the data on the videotape to the DVD. The digital video stabilizer also helps copy data from videotape to videotape. Although some people may view that copying videotapes as illegal, it is perfectly legal to make copies for your own use. Where are these equipment called a digital video stabilizer available for sale? A simple search online will give you many places where you can buy a digital video stabilizer, and many have the option of shipping it directly to your doorstep. The price of a digital video stabilizer may change from $20 ro $40 depending on the brand and the quality of the device output. Although the digital video stabilizers work with any type of VCR, they are compatible with certain types of DVD recorders. It is important to do some research on the model of the digital video recorder you are interested in purchasing before you actually do so, to see if it is compatible with the VCR and DVD recorder you already own.

digital video stabilizer 80 4280

A digital video stabilizer can be a great piece of equipment you own as now you will not have to worry about safe guarding all those tapes from when you were young. It is quite easy and secure to store your video footage on a CD or DVD, where the digital video stabilizer helps you to transfer all the videos on the tapes without loss of quality to DVD format.

digital video stabilizer

Digital videos are the latest thing in videos now. Gone are the days when everything was recorded onto tape, and we need to make sure nothing happened to those tapes or all the footage would be lost. Now it is the time for DVDs and everything has gone digital. Even today, we may have some of the video tapes carrying valuable memories. The risk of having your memories on a tape is that you will losoe them soon or later and day by day, as the picture quality reduces with the decay of the tapes . What can be done? This is where digital video stabilizer can help you.

A digital video stabilizer can convert the video data from conventional tapes (analog) to CDs or DVDs (digital). First of all, the digital video stabilizer removes copy-protection on the videotape, and makes it possible for the data on the videotape to be copied onto a DVD. The digital video stabilizer also helps copy data from videotape to videotape. It is important to note here that it is legal for the owner of the tape to make copies from the videotape onto the DVD for his own use, using the digital video stabilizer. Where are these equipment called a digital video stabilizer available for sale? A simple search online will give you many places where you can buy a digital video stabilizer, and many have the option of shipping it directly to your doorstep. Prices for a digital video stabilizer can range from around $20 to more than $40. Any digital video stabilizer works with any kind of VCR, but some of the digital video stabilizer work with only certain brand of DVD recorders. Therefore, it is important to have a look at the compatibity of the devices that you own already before buying the digital video stabilizer as otherwise, you will have no use of your existing equipments.

The digital video stabilizer totally keeps you worry-free as now you do not have to worry about the decay of the video tapes you have. It is quite easy and secure to store your video footage on a CD or DVD, and a digital video stabilizer will make it easier for you to transfer that footage from tape to DVD with no loss of quality.