It seems that BestMedia is the first to release a 80 minutes CD-ReWritable media (at least I have not seen any other overhere).

• OSTA hosting "PlugFest" in an efforts to Ensure Broad Compatibility Among Writable Optical Storage Media
• Traxdata Enters North American Market, Announces Distribution Plans

• Prevents any type of unauthorized digital duplication of CDs, DVDs and proprietary formats (Music, Video or Data).
• It does not rely on software keys, hardware dongles, plugs or other external equipment or processes.
• Protected CDs and DVDs fully operate on existing commercial players and drives.
• It prohibits Internet-piracy by preventing unauthorized transmission/conversion of digital files (Music/MP3, Software and Video) over the Internet.

Very hefty claims especially for Audio-CD's as there has never been a "working" CD Protection available which could not easily be by-passed.

The protection is currently being used by BMG Entertainment to protect their Audio CD's. So far the albums Razorblade Romance from Him and My private War from Philip Boa & The Voodoo club are the first to be "affected" by this protection... More here.

If you are into Star Trek have a look at the new LCARS Terminal website from Escort Software.

Last Thursday, New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan granted a preliminary injunction against three defendants, Shawn Reimerdes, Eric Corley a.k.a. Emmanuel Goldstein, and Roman Kazan, sued by the Motion Picture Association of America, also for DeCSS distribution via the Internet. The defendants have been ordered to remove the offending software from their Web sites, but Judge Kaplan, like Judge Elfving, was unwilling to prohibit linking to other sites which might offer it for download... More at The Register & 2600.com.

• Macrovision Completes Strategic Investment in TTR Technologies

• Self-Destructing DVD's
• Young Minds adds Linux Support for Entire Product Line of CD-R and DVD-R Systems

• US Music Industry (RIAA) sues MP3.com  over 'Virtual CD Player'
• AudioTrack Announces Major Breakthrough In Audio Watermarking Technology
• X10.com's MP3 Anywhere 2000 Wireless Broadcast System

A second Lawsuit was filed last Friday in federal courts in New York and Connecticut which is initiated by the seven largest U.S. movie studios to prevent Internet sites from distributing the DeCSS program. DeCSS allows users to bypass the DVD encryption scheme which prevents unauthorized copying. This case is scheduled for tomorrow the 20th and involves the following websites DVD-Copy.com, Krackdown and CT2600... More here.

The player is originally made by VDDV (Visual Disc and Digital Video Corp.) who are located in China. They sell the player as the VDDV AD-600A Multi-Purpose DVDPlayer.

Player Specifications:

Not much else is known yet as I-Jam don't feature any info on their own website. For more info checkout their Press Release.

The I-Jam IJ-888 DVD/MP3 Player will be available Q2 this year at a suggested retail price of US$ 229.

CD/DVD NewsWire

• Amoisonic Introduces the First, Consumer-Affordable VideoDisc Recorder
• Pioneer launches second generation industrial DVD-Video Player

• Downloading Streaming Media onto Rio MP3 Using Media Manager Software
• TI to link CD players to MP3 devices
• RealNetworks and Adaptec Team up to Provide Personal Audio CD Creation Capabilities in RealJukebox
• I-Jam Multimedia Showcases Latest Devices in Digital Entertainment At CES 2000

Updates:

• IsoBuster now supports A LOT more SCSI drives !
• Modified field now shows data correctly (all the time)
• Few Memory allocation improvements.  App now uses even less memory.
• Less critical in case of ISO format which is 'out of spec'.
• Some cosmetic improvements

New Features:

• Support for two more ImageFiles: *.IMG  (Clone CD) & *.CIF  (Creator, single track images)

The big question will be if the current CD-Writers and CD-Readers are able to handle (read/write) the new Traxdata CD-R99 media as already a few of them won't work well with 80 minutes CD-R's! We call our contact at Traxdata if they are willing to send us samples so we can do some preliminary testing.

The German distributor E&K-Data thinks, that the new media will be available Q2.
- Thanks CrOc for pointing it out!

WinLock is a CD-R utility that helps you to create your own copy-protected CD by adding 3 dummy tracks to an existing CDRWIN/DAO Cue-Sheet.

It creates a dummy file which then is added as an Audio, Mode-1 Data and a Mode-2 Data track.

• The (Eventual) Return of ASPI ME
• The Next Generation CD-ROM: 140 GigiByte FMD ROM