Commercial video download sites like CinemaNow and the iTunes Store will soon have the option of allowing customers to burn copies of downloaded movies to DVDs that will playback in standard DVD players, thanks to an amendment recently approved by the DVD Copy Control Association.

To date, movies bought from online services could not be burned to the venerable commercial DVD format because of legal restrictions. The ubiquitous commercial DVD format is “protected” against copying by an encryption system known as CSS, and the DVD Copy Control Association has been reluctant to let consumers gain access to the CSS technology needed to make movies compatible for DVD players.

Are you using Windows Vista? Then you might as well know that the licensed operating system installed on your machine is harvesting a healthy volume of information for Microsoft. In this context, a program such as the Windows Genuine Advantage is the last of your concerns. In fact, in excess of 20 Windows Vista features and services are hard at work collecting and transmitting your personal data to the Redmond company.

Microsoft makes no secret about the fact that Windows Vista is gathering information. End users have little to say, and no real choice in the matter. The company does provide both a Windows Vista Privacy Statement and references within the End User License Agreement for the operating system. Combined, the resources paint the big picture over the extent of Microsoft’s end user data harvest via Vista.

AllOfMp3, the popular online music store, has been shut down by the Russian government. Pressure from the United States, and a refusal to enter the World Trade Organisation (WTO) convinced the Kremlin to take the website down for good.

allofmp3Before the shutdown AllOfMP3 had nearly 6 million users who were able to download songs and albums for a fraction of the price from authorized alternatives such as the iTunes Store. MP3s were sold for $0.20 per song, or less.

AllOfMP3 has been a thorn in the side of the RIAA and the US government for years. Last year, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that if Russia wants to join the WTO, they should shut down the pirate music website [AllOfMP3] that is robbing U.S. recording companies of sales.

The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, has launched its very own channel on YouTube to make its audiovisual content more widely available to the public.

The channel, EUTube, contains video content ranging from documentaries covering the EU’s activities and history to interviews with European commissioners.

Issues such as climate change, energy and immigration will all be covered by the content available on the channel.

Apple Inc. sold about 525,000 iPhones at Apple and AT&T Inc. stores in the first weekend since its June 29 launch, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday, citing an analyst.

Half of the Apple stores on the U.S. West Coast sold out of the devices on the first day, the report said, citing analyst Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research in San Francisco.

Chowdhry could not immediately be reached for comment. Apple and AT&T were not immediately available.

Piper Jaffray also estimated first-weekend sales of the iPhone at about 500,000, according to cnet.com.

Adobe is shipping the final two editions of its Creative Suite 3, rounding off the first updates to its digital design software since a merger with Macromedia less than two years ago. Both the Adobe CS3 Production Premium and Master Collection (more here) are available for purchase immediately online.

At $1,699, Production Premium CS3 includes upgrades of Premiere video editing and AfterEffects post-production software. In addition, the $2,499 Adobe Master Collection includes 17 applications that encompass the creation of film, video, audio, Web and mobile content. The Adobe CS3 applications run on Windows in addition to Intel-based and PowerPC-based Mac computers.

Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s Wii game console outsold Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 by a ratio of over 6 to 1 in June in Japan, a game magazine publisher said, solidifying Nintendo’s leading position.

Nintendo sold 270,974 units of the Wii in the four weeks ended June 24, compared with 41,628 units for the PS3 and 17,616 units for Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360, according to data from Enterbrain.

The Wii’s lead against the PS3 was 4 to 1 in April and 5 to 1 in May.

Linspire, Inc., developer of the Linspire commercial and Freespire community desktop Linux operating systems, today announced it will join the current efforts to improve the ability of OpenOffice.org users to work with the Office Open XML format by increasing the interoperability between ODF and Open XML.

Linspire is joining with others who have signed on to this effort, including Novell and Xandros, to create bi-directional open source translators for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations between ODF and Open XML. All future releases of Linspire and Freespire will include the bi-directional translators between ODF and Open XML. As a result, end users of Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org will be able to more easily share files, as documents will better maintain consistent formats, formulas and style templates across the two office productivity suites.

Amazon.com Inc. will begin selling high-definition independent films in the HD DVD format through its on-demand DVD printing service, the company said late Sunday.

The Web retailer said it will waive processing fees for the first 1,000 films it accepts for production by its CustomFlix Labs Inc. subsidiary. Microsoft Corp. will supply the necessary technology - VC1 high-def video encoding software and the HDi program used to package the film and extra features on the disk.

Microsoft’s Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president for the consumer media technology group, said 90 percent of HD DVDs use Microsoft’s encoding and interactive programs, and that Amazon’s support could help extend the format’s reach.

“We believe in this format. We’re really committed to HD DVD,” he said.