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Apple Allows Some MacBook Videos To Play On External Displays

Apple released a QuickTime update that allows standard-definition iTunes movies to play over new MacBooks' DisplayPort to older displays, according to reports on Apple blogs. However, high-def movies are still blocked, which is unfair to owners of MacBooks and other systems by other vendors that use the same technology.

The update is available on Software Update for unibody MacBook and MacBook Pros as well as the second-generation MacBook Air, writes Aidan Malley at AppleInsider.com. It addresses a complaint that the new laptops wouldn't play purchased movies in external displays without HDCP support. The restrictions are commonplace on consumer electronics, according to AppleInsider.

The update only effects playback of standard-definition content on external displays; it doesn't effect high-def content.

That still leaves consumers unable to play their legally-purchased media on legally-purchased devices. Entertainment companies claim they need to do this kind of thing to protect their copyright, but (as Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow notes), copyright has nothing to do with which devices you use to play back media. Copyright is about making copies, not playback.

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