There is confusion still over unresolved copy protection issues and questions about when the new high definition DVDs will work on HD DVD.

A Los Angeles Sheriff's Department sting last week resulted in the arrests of nine people involved in the illegal sale of the DVDs on Metro Rail's Blue and Red lines -trains which run from Long Beach to Universal Studios.

Gun smugglers in the States have found a novel way to traffic their deadly goods - by packing the weapons into the spare space found in the cases of humble DVD players.

Security firm F-Secure confirmed yestarday the presence of a rootkit on two german DVDs.The rootkit comes from a new copy protection scheme that needs to be installed into a Windows PC to play two german video-DVDs.

The Motion Picture Ass. of America have filed seven lawsuits in Los Angeles federal court against online auctioneers in four US states who they allege have been selling counterfeit DVDs of popular movies such as "Batman Begins" and "Million Dollar Baby."

Microsoft and its hardware partners will continue to develop new digital media devices aimed at challenging the dominance of Apple's iPod music player, according to chairman Bill Gates.

India-based Moser Baer India (MBI), a leading global manufacturer of optical discs, last week announced halting capacity expansion for CD-R and DVD+R/-R discs, a move that will avoid a potential oversupply of DVD+R/-R discs.

Reports are emerging of a dubious practice being employed Stateside by online DVD rental service Netflix. It would appear that under their operating policy customers paying a fixed monthly subscription that become identified as 'heavy users' typically will have their rental requests delayed and put at the back of the queue.

Pirate DVD shops might not normally be considered outposts of free expression, but they are among the many gaps in the great wall of Chinese propaganda, which is being breached by a motley crew of bloggers, copyright dodgers and curious consumers.

A Channel 4 film directed by Michael Winterbottom is to be distributed in cinemas, on DVD and online simultaneously for the first time.

Plextor is the first company that apparently has found a way to increase DVD writer speeds beyond the 16x mark, which has been considered a physical limitation for DVD media. The new writer increases the maximum write speed from about 21 MB/s to about 24 MB/s.

Is it legal to sell on an iPod type device that has your signature mix of tunes already on it? The Recording Industry Association of America — the lobbying group behind the thousands of lawsuits over unauthorized sharing and downloading of songs — says the answer is definitely no.

An anti-trust investigation into the licensing of Philips' recordable CD technology has been shelved after the firm changed its tune. The result is that CD-Rs are going to get even cheaper.

Stateside cops are looking for a daft burglar who took the time to make coffee, cook and eat meals, take showers, pick out a change of clothes, watch television and check his e-mail while raiding three houses.

Sony Pictures have became the first major studio to put a price tag on Blu-ray discs when they become available in U.S. stores this year.

Nero have announced that Samsung is sending out test samples in Europe of its Samsung Blu-ray disc devices together with a special test version of Nero 7 supporting the Blu-ray disc format.

Owners of a Nintendo DS portable gaming system in the U.S. will soon be able to use the device for wireless game downloads and voice chats.

DVD pirate Joanne Dunn escaped being tagged by a court after claiming it would make her look like a criminal. She moaned that the electronic device on her ankle would prevent her going out in a skirt... even though she turned up for the hearing in trousers.

For the last several months, the P2P population has reversed its mid to late year stagnation and decline. As is typical, cyclical variations in the total number of simultaneously connected users features small declines and plateaus, however over time the population has ultimately continued its march forward.

Hardware websites are in a fever over accusations that graphics chip maker Nvidia paid people and gave them gifts to salt message boards with endorsements of its products.