A businessman claims to be losing £70,000 a year because illegal copies of his videos and DVDs are being traded on internet site eBay. Keith Bowen, 57, who owns a company called Nite Out promotions, buys the rights to racing events, from horse races to fun pig races, and adds graphics and commentary. He then sells the package to pubs, clubs and charity event organisers.

Sony and other technology companies working to launch the next generation of DVD format, Blu-ray Disc, are planning to develop a smaller (8cm) version of the disc, Sony have said.

The British music industry is to sue 28 internet users it says are illegally swapping music online. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) says it is targeting "major uploaders" - those who make music available to share free with others.

The BBC demoed an early version of an open source codec it hopes will give proprietary video technology a serious run for its money at the LinuxWorld exhibition today.

Our resident DVD Guru flash is very busy lately: he has been sampling all the latest media from Datawrite and has produced for us a review on it. The media is 8x printable DVD-R and is manufactured by CMC Magnetics. Click to read the full Datawrite 8x Review.

Pioneer has disclosed the availability of five new hard drive DVD recorders.

Ritek has succeeded in developing advanced dyes for making DVD+R DL (single-sided, double-layer) discs, becoming the second company to develop the dye after Japan-based Mitsubishi Chemical, according to company spokesman Eric Ai.

More than 70 companies from the consumer electronics (CE), information technology (IT), media and software industries have held the first official meeting of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). The BDA supports the continued development and promotion of the Blu-ray Disc (BD) format.

Xbox 2 may make use of the HD-DVD format, if some Japanese electronics giants have their way. At the CEATEC Japan technology exhibition, now ongoing just outside of Tokyo, a manager at NEC revealed that his company is working to get Microsoft to use the format in the successor console to Xbox.

Some second-tier and smaller manufacturers of optical discs recently increased their OEM quotations for CD-R discs to US$0.10, up from US$0.08-0.09, on increased costs of polycarbonate (PC), a key component.

A short while back we announced the introduction of the new RiDisc Silver Printable DVD-R. Our resident Guru Flash has managed to get his hands on some and has sent us this review.

Ritek have changed their DVD dye formulation but is it an improvement? Our resident DVD Guru Flash has been examining this new media see what he has to say about it in this review.

Our resident DVD Guru Flash has been busy with six different 16x speed DVD writers in his quest to find the best burner. Check out his latest reviews in the series: RiDisc Dual Layer DVD+R and Prodisc 16x speed DVD+R

In order to maintain their leverage in negotiating royalty charges, leading Taiwan manufacturers of optical discs and optical disc drives (ODDs) are remaining neutral in the battle for next-generation blue-laser DVD standards, and specifically the battle between Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, according to Taiwan industry makers.

DVD+RW technology guardian, the DVD+RW Alliance, this week issued the final version of the 8x rewrite specification... almost.

Leading Japanese manufacturers of 16x DVD+R/-R discs began to expand their production capacities in the third quarter of this year, which has Taiwan makers guessing about their motives.

CMC Magnetics, the largest producer of optical discs in Taiwan, will raise its OEM quotation for CD-R discs by US$0.01 to US$0.14-0.15 per disc, according to the company.

U.S. film studio Twentieth Century Fox will support the Blu-ray standard for next-generation optical discs, a Japanese business daily reported Sunday, advancing the cause of Sony Corp. and its partners in a war over the next generation of DVDs.

A claim by IT experts the Gartner Group that Linux downloads are a cover for piracy has been dismissed by the Open Source Industry Association (OSIA). The Big G’s claim was that more than three quarters of Linux shipments are likely to end up running Windows and very often pirated versions.

The price level of optical discs, due to decreasing competition, is likely to bottom out in November, which is earlier than originally expected, according to CEO Gordon Yeh of Ritek.