The rub, though, is that you'll need a DLNA Digital Media Player (or Rederer) that supports MPEG2, and that just isn't as common as you might think -- as well as DTCP-IP support for copy protected content.

ENGADGET

There's a (fairly evasive) explanation as to why copy-protected media won't work, while commenters remind us that hardware compatibility isn't as surefire as we'd always like.

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Johansen's associate told Reuters that an unnamed client will soon use this technology so its copy-protected content will be playable on iPods, but she declined to give any details on who that might be.

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This is, to put it mildly, an unorthodox interpretation of the DMCA. The whole point of the DMCA is to prevent even lawful owners of copy-protected content from making copies and giving them to their friends.

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It runs both Xbox's gaming interface and the Windows Media Centre Edition, and it can, connected to a TV in the lounge, or the bedroom, pull HD video, including live, streamed, pre-downloaded, copy-protected, digital rights managed video from your PC onto your TV.

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As I understand the new agreement and subsequent comments, which are about as cryptic as a copy-protected DVD, ISP's have agreed to implement a standardized "graduated response plan" through which offending users are warned, restricted and eventually cut off from the Internet for successive violations.

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In the 1950s Anthony Allison, a British biochemist, observed that Africans who carry a single copy of the genetic mutation that causes sickle-cell anaemia are protected against malaria.

ECONOMIST: Genetics and infectious disease: The germ of an idea | The

One feature you're not getting with this unit -- besides the inability to record OTA programming -- is DRM support, so if you want to load up your PlaysForSure- or FairPlay-protected tracks, you'll need to strip out the copy protection with one of those handy pieces of software first (not that we'd ever encourage that sort of behavior, of course).

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The system could the force a reboot if it detects what it considers an infringing act, such as attempting to copy a CD or DVD, even if that disc isn't explicitly protected by StarForce.

ENGADGET: Starforce DRM said to force reboots