Jon Lech Johansen was born to kill digital rights management technology. He started as a teen, adopting the handle DVD Jon. In addition to cracking open the technology used to encrypt DVDs, he's taken his hammer to Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
FairPlay DRM.
Recently, DVD Jon and partner Monique Farantzos founded DoubleTwist, a company that offers products like the DoubleTwist Desktop and the Facebook widget Twist Me, designed to simplify the flow of media across devices and social networks. DoubleTwist's utility basically plays a protected media file at high speed and re-records it on an open format, circumventing DRM. For example, it can apparently convert 100 iTunes songs in about half an hour.
The keys and tools DVD Jon released in the past were available as freeware, and some of DoubleTwist's software is free too -- but his latest venture does include a profit motive. Guy's gotta eat.
Listen to the podcast (10:23 minutes).
Cayman Crackdown
Here's a shocker: a Swiss bank operating in the Caribbean might -- just might -- be involved in money laundering. I don't know about you, but every banker I've met in the Cayman Islands has been nothing but a paragon of virtue and integrity, so I'm having a hard time buying it.
Still, Wikileaks.org says it's so, and now the bank in question is trying to put the kibosh on the site, which bills itself as an uncensorable repository of leaked documents and smoking guns. A U.S. judge has ordered the American arm of Wikileaks to go dark after Bank Julius Baer claimed it had illegally published some of its private, internal documents. The Wikileaks poster -- a former VP named Rudolf Elmer -- claims that the documents are evidence that the bank is involved in money laundering and tax evasion.
Wikileaks and its supporters are furious over what they see as government censorship. However, if the documents turn out to contain legitimate trade secrets, they may be silenced under the law. One thing's clear, though -- shutting Wikileaks down will probably prove much easier than shutting it up. The documents in question are still freely available on mirror sites located outside the U.S. -- and I'd be willing to bet that a lot more people have read those documents now than would have if the bank hadn't, literally, made a federal case out of it.
Free Love in Redmond
In the past, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) 
has had a simple relationship with other software vendors: If you weren't a target for a buyout or a lawsuit, you'd have a really hard time -- at best -- making your products interoperable with the stuff from Redmond. Hey, even if you were part of Microsoft, you'd sometimes have a hard time getting your stuff to work well with other Microsoft products.
The company rode that attitude all the way to the top, and today, for better or for worse, it's the Goliath of the technology industry. However, a new day is dawning. Microsoft has laid out a variety of moves designed to make Windows and other products work better with non-Microsoft software. It plans to open a whole mess of code it previously treated as valuable intellectual property and carefully guarded trade secrets. In large part, that decision was driven by industry changes, competitive pressures and more than a few legal inconveniences -- especially in Europe.
Microsoft has outlined a four-point strategy: creating more connections in its most popular products; increasing data portability; offering greater support for industry standards; and working to make more friends in the open source development community.
Format War Ends
Toshiba finally raised a white flag in the high-definition DVD format war, ceding victory to Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Blu-ray. The surrender followed a series of painful blows to Toshiba's HD DVD format, which included announcements of Blu-ray support by Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) , Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) . The tangle over formats lasted for months, leaving both Toshiba and Sony a bit bloodied.
The turning point, according to IDC analyst Elizabeth Curtis, was Warner Bros. ' decision to release films in Blu-ray rather than HD DVD. When the retailers jumped on the bandwagon, that sealed the deal. A day after Toshiba admitted defeat, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) decided to support -- drum roll -- Blu-ray. Way to take a risk, there, Amazon.
Sue Another Day
Not so many days ago, it looked like SCO was about to draw its final breath. The lawsuits the company had mounted against IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) -- claiming they stole its Unix code -- had blown up in its face. SCO declared bankruptcy, it got booted from the Nasdaq club, and a fresh round of layoffs sent over a quarter of its staff packing.
Then along came Stephen Norris Capital Partners, which gave SCO a shot of adrenaline in the form of a hundred-million dollar cash infusion. By pumping that money into the firm, SNCP is effectively taking SCO private. It claims it's developed a new business plan for SCO that involves making new products and selling them to global customers.
Any bets on how long before SCO tries again to strike gold by suing for it?
SP1 Headaches
Some Windows Vista users are having trouble with the Service Pack 1 upgrade. When they install the update, their antivirus software doesn't work. The problem also affects a few other programs, such as the NYT Reader.
Microsoft said the problems are either the result of a bad driver -- which it is working on -- or a problem installing the affected program. When Microsoft designed Windows Vista, it changed the way programs install, forcing many companies to rework their installers.
Some of them didn't do it right, says Microsoft, slipping into blame-the-victim mode.
We've all been through it: You open your cell phone bill and, gasp, it's quadruple the price and you break out in a cold sweat. Well, three of the big four wireless carriers are offering to wipe away your worries with a set fee -- possibly charging you more in the long run, of course. Verizon , AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile all rolled out new subscription options that let users talk as much as they want.
All three priced their plans at 99 dollars a month. The announcement -- though good news for chatty mobile users -- sparked concerns among investors about a profit-sapping price war in the mobile space. Verizon was the first to the plate, saying it would give power users the opportunity to get unlimited voice minutes for the first time.
AT&T rolled out its offering about five hours after Verizon's announcement. Then, T-Mobile joined the chorus with a plan that allows unlimited text, picture and instant messages as well as talk. Sprint (NYSE: S) has steered clear of the fray so far, but it's known to be testing an all-you-can-eat plan for both data and voice in some limited markets, and it may try to gain an advantage on its stronger rivals with a much lower price point.
Online Ad Partnership
Some of the largest newspaper companies in the U.S. are teaming up to sell online advertising to national customers. Tribune, New York Times, Hearst and Gannett -- four of the largest newspaper companies in the U.S. -- are forming QuadrantOne to take on the likes of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) . The idea behind the alliance is that national advertisers like to target their ads to geographic regions, but they have no control over which Web sites display their ads.
By tapping their local reader base, as well as their brand credibility, the companies think they can better target the right customers. The news was met with some skepticism across the industry, particularly since similar alliances and for-profit brokers already exist, and the field is getting crowded.
What can you get for about 50 bucks these days? A couple of DVDs, a few T-shirts, a trip to the movies or -- as of this week -- an iPod shuffle. Apple slashed the price of its tiny iPod shuffle by more than a third, dropping the 1 gigabyte model to US$49 and, in turn, making it the most affordable iPod ever. The company will introduce a new 2 gigabyte shuffle for $69 later this month.
The shuffle is just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs a little more than half an ounce, and features an aluminum design with a built-in clip that makes it easy to attach to your hoodie or your fleecy or your spandex. It comes in five colors -- silver, blue, green, purple and a (Product) Red special edition. The overall design was introduced in late 2006 as a follow-up to the first version, which was shaped more like a stick of gum and came with a lanyard.
Also in this episode: The Redmond boardroom shuffle; T-Mobile tries its hand at home VoIP service; headset game controller reads your brain waves.
Talkback: 
