NBCU in Alliance with Tech Companies to Combat Piracy

LAS VEGAS, January 9: NBC
Universal has aligned with several companies, including Microsoft and AT&T,
to develop a set of anti-piracy measures for online content, according to the Financial
Times.

The FT reports that NBC
Universal has approached Apple about the alliance, in order to develop measures
to prevent pirated content from being played in the iPod. The computer giant is
said to have declined the offer—relations between Apple and NBC Universal
have been strained since NBCU pulled all of its content off the iTunes Store in
a dispute about pricing.

The alliance was formed at
the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday. In addition
to Microsoft and AT&T, the alliance is said to include Phillips and
SanDisk.

—By Mansha Daswani