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Main Stories
o Justice Dept. Ends Antitrust Probe of Major Labels' Pressplay, MusicNet
o Report: Number of File-Swappers Halved Since RIAA Lawsuits Began
o Belgian Consumer Group Sues Labels Over Copy-Protected CDs
o "DVD Jon" Secures Victory after Norwegian Police Drop Appeal  
o Report: 1.3 Billion DVDs Rented, 17 DVDs per Player Sold in 2003  
o Game Developer Mythic Sues Microsoft Over "Mythica" Online Game
o Online Auctioneer eBay to Launch European PayPal Service
o Netflix Subscribers Up 74% in 2003 to 1.49 Million
o Report: Broadband Lines Worldwide Surpass 100-Million Mark

o Briefly Noted: Macrovision - InterTrust - patent dispute, NEC - red/blue laser DVD drive, Cornice - 2GB microdrive, ATI - digital cable TV chip, Ucentric Systems - Comcast, IBiquity Digital, THQ, Consumer Electronics Show, $100 iPod?

Washington -- The U.S. Department of Justice has closed its antitrust investigation into Pressplay and MusicNet -- two joint ventures between a number of major record labels that were created to distribute music on the Internet. The Justice Dept. began investigating both services in the summer of 2001, six months before Pressplay -- a joint venture between Sony Music and Universal Music -- and MusicNet (Warner, BMG, EMI, AOL) would launch in December. The investigation examined whether the joint ventures affected the licensing terms offered to other digital music services not owned by the major labels, and whether or not the joint ventures impeded the growth of the digital music market, solidifying the major labels' central roles in the existing music market. The Justice Dept. pointed to the loosening of restrictions within Pressplay and MusicNet that hampered CD burning and transfer to portable devices, emerging competition from Apple's iTunes, BuyMusic.com, Dell and MTV, and the sale of Pressplay to Napster parent Roxio in October as signs of a healthy market. "The concerns that led [the Justice Dept.] to open its investigation have now diminished or disappeared," the Justice Dept. said in a statement.
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/December/03_at_719.htm
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/guidelines/201888.htm
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5133148.html
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o Report: Number of File-Swappers Halved Since RIAA Lawsuits Began

Washington -- The number of Americans downloading music over peer-to-peer file-sharing services like Kazaa has dwindled by half since the recording industry began suing individual file-swappers in September 2002, according to a study released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Since March 2002, when 29% of those surveyed, or about 35 million Americans reported using file-sharing services, the number of downloaders has fallen to 14%, or about 18 million users. Data from comScore Media Metrix used for the report also found that the user bases for the major file-sharing applications also dropped dramatically in the wake of the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) legal campaign. Kazaa saw its user base fall 15% between November 2002 and 2003, while rival Grokster's user base fell by 59%. Demographic groups that recorded the steepest plunges in the percentage of downloaders were women (58% decrease in the size of the downloading population), those with some college education (61% decrease) and parents with children living at home (58% decrease).
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=109
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_File_Swapping_Memo_0104.pdf
http://makeashorterlink.com/?O609257F6
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o Belgian Consumer Group Sues Labels Over Copy-Protected CDs

Brussels -- Belgium's consumer watchdog Test-Achats (Test Aankoop) announced on Monday that it is taking major record labels EMI, Sony, BMG and Universal Music to court over the copy-protection technology they are beginning to embed on their audio CDs. The regulator says that it has received numerous consumer complaints that the anti-piracy systems have prevented the CDs from being played on PCs and car stereos, and that the technology strips consumers of their usual ability to make a back-up copy of a CD. With the news, Test-Achats becomes the first European watchdog to challenge the global music industry over its anti-piracy measures.
http://www.test-achats.be/main/fs_module_fr.asp?ref_id=5-1
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q5F8117F6
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o "DVD Jon" Secures Victory after Norwegian Police Drop Appeal

Oslo -- Jon Johansen, also known as "DVD Jon," on Monday won a major victory against Norwegian police authorities and the U.S. film industry after local police confirmed they would not appeal a recent ruling on DVD piracy for a second time. Johansen had allegedly broken the law by distributing a computer program on the Internet allowing the unauthorized copying of DVDs. An appeals court in Oslo, however, cleared the notorious 20-year-old last month of piracy charges that had been filed by Norwegian police, who in turn had brought the charges against Johansen on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America.
http://www.okokrim.no 
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34706.html
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o Report: 1.3 Billion DVDs Rented, 17 DVDs per Player Sold in 2003

Encino, Calif. -- Consumers spent $4.3 billion renting a total of 1.3 billion DVD movies during 2003, up 55% from 2002, according to data from Rentrak provided by the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA), a trade group of retailers and rental firms. Additionally, Adams Media Research estimates that consumers spent over $12 billion buying DVDs in 2003 -- or 17 DVDs per player -- an increase of 46% from 2002 totals. The group reports that more than one-half of all U.S. households now own a DVD player. "We have simply run out of superlatives to describe the DVD phenomenon," said VSDA president Bo Andersen. "It's bigger and better than anyone imagined it could be."
http://www.vsda.org/Resource.phx/public/press/january2004/january05-04.htx  ____________________________________________

o Game Developer Mythic Sues Microsoft Over "Mythica" Online Game

Washington -- Mythic Entertainment, a publisher of online video games, has sued Microsoft for trademark infringement and unfair competition over a soon to be released game from the software giant, called "Mythica." D.C.-based Mythic sued Microsoft in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, seeking a permanent injunction against the release of the game, as well as damages including its legal fees. "We have worked hard for eight years to earn our reputation for producing high quality online games, including games that compete successfully with those offered by the biggest corporations in the world, such as Microsoft," said Mythic CEO Mark Jacobs. "We cannot allow Microsoft to usurp our rights, confuse the public, and use the Mythic brand to gain an unfair competitive advantage." Additionally, Jacobs told CNET News.com that a prerelease version of Microsoft's "Mythica" contained other similarities to Mythic's "Dark Age of Camelot" online game, including comparable names for specific levels. Microsoft said it would not comment on pending litigation. 
http://news.com.com/2100-1043-5130723.html
http://www.mythicentertainment.com  _____________________________________________

o Online Auctioneer eBay to Launch European PayPal Service

London -- In a bid to strengthen its quickly growing operations in Europe, online auctioneer eBay will launch a European business division for U.K.-based PayPal Europe, Reuters reported. EBay said it expects to launch to service by next month, although it has yet to receive authorization from the Financial Services Authority in the U.K. The company acquired PayPal -- currently the preferred payment method for eBay traders in the U.S. -- last year. The customer total for eBay's international units -- spearheaded by divisions in the U.K. and Germany -- is set to double the customer total in the U.S. over the next few years, analysts say.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?X165256F6 _____________________________________________

o Netflix Subscribers Up 74% in 2003 to 1.49 Million

Los Gatos, Calif. -- Netflix, an online DVD rental service that delivers movies through the mail, announced that it ended the year 2003 with a total of 1,487,000 subscribers, an increase of 74% over its total at the end of 2002. The figure also represents a 15% increase over the number of subscribers reported at the end of the third quarter of 2003. In December, Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix revised its 2003 subscriber projection upwards, saying it expected to count between 1.47 million and 1.495 million subscribers by the end of the year. The company will report its annual earnings on Jan. 21.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040102/sff017_1.html 
http://www.netflix.com
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o Report: Broadband Lines Worldwide Surpass 100-Million Mark

London -- According to new estimates by British analyst firm Point Topic, there are now more than 100 million broadband Internet lines in the world. The company said that the total number of lines grew to more than 89 million in September, an increase of more than 10 million lines compared to more than 79 million recorded at the end of June. Point Topic's Tim Johnson said that the same percentage growth in the fourth quarter of 2003 would push the global total of lines past 100 million, making broadband Internet one of the fastest growing technologies in history.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F2B3226F6

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>Sr. Sales Executive – Media, Entertainment and Aggregator

Peppercoin, Inc. is a micropayments company that enables online merchants to sell low-priced digital goods profitably. Peppercoin was founded by world-renowned leaders in cryptographic technology from MIT whose previous ideas led to significant enterprises worth billions of dollars. By joining the Peppercoin team, you will help us perpetuate this record of success. We are looking for an experienced sales professional to sell our service and product offerings to the Media, Entertainment and Aggregator markets. The position demands knowledge of these markets and a proven ability to sell new products from early stage start-ups.  Send resume to careers@peppercoin.com  URL: www.peppercoin.com

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(Santa Clara, Calif.) Macrovision, a developer of copy-protection and digital rights management technologies, announced on Monday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will hold additional patent interference proceedings regarding a dispute between the company and rival InterTrust Technologies, which is now owned by a joint venture between Sony and Philips. The current proceedings, along with the previously announced patent hearings, will determine which company first invented and should receive rights to the various digital rights management technologies, which also happen to be part of a patent dispute between InterTrust and Microsoft. "The outcome will determine U.S. ownership of intellectual property that we believe to be important to the field of digital rights management," said Macrovision president and CEO Bill Krepick.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040105/55398_1.html 
http://www.intertrust.com 
http://www.macrovision.com

(Tokyo) Japanese electronics firm NEC announced that it has created a DVD drive that is capable of playing both current, red laser technology-based DVDs as well as discs that support the emerging, higher-capacity blue laser technology. The new blue laser-based DVDs can hold 20GB, up to four times more data than current DVD discs.
http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0312/1801.html

(Longmont, Colo.) Cornice, a developer of small hard drives for consumer electronics, on Monday announced the availability of its new 2.0 gigabyte drive. The new drive offers 33% more capacity than its original product, which is used in MP3 players, video camcorders and other devices from makers including Texas Instruments, PortalPlayer and SigmaTel. Colorado-based Cornice said the new drives, which will cost $70 per unit in quantities of 100,000 per year, can store over three hours of VHS-quality video and may be also be developed for use in continent-inclusive GPS devices and multi-function handheld computers.
http://www.corniceco.com

(Markham, Ontario) Chipmaker ATI Technologies on Monday announced the introduction of its Xilleon 210VC, what it says is the world's first digital terrestrial and cable plug-and-play television-on-chip. The chip supports both the FCC terrestrial broadcast standard and the recent FCC mandate ordering that all digital TVs be digital cable ready. The company will be displaying the technology at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040105/55184_1.html
http://www.ati.com/products/dtv/revolutionary.html

(Maynard, Mass.) Ucentric Systems, a provider of home media networking technology, announced on Monday that cable TV operator Comcast will trial its Whole Home Music 1.0 networking system with Comcast subscribers in the Philadelphia area. The trial will be an extension of an existing trial of Massachusetts-based Ucentric's multi-digital video recorder technology trial with Comcast, using set-top boxes from Samsung equipped with Ucentric software. The music networking software will allow access of digital music files from any TV, and playback to any set of networked speakers in the home.
http://www.comcast.com 
http://www.samsung.com 
http://www.ucentric.com

(Columbia, Md.) IBiquity Digital, a developer of technology that allows radio stations to transmit a digital signal alongside their regular analog AM/FM broadcasts, announced that the first HD Radio receiver will go on sale today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sales of the Kenwood KTC-HR 100 will allow stations including Iowa's KZIA-FM Z102.9 to integrate datacasting into their broadcasts that can display information as text directly on the face of the radio.
http://www.ibiquity.com

(Calabasas Hills, Calif.) Video game publisher THQ on Monday announced that it appointed Ian Curran as vice president, European publishing, and Martin Good as vice president for Asia-Pacific publishing. Previously, Curran served as managing director of THQ UK, while Good was general manager of the company's Australia and New Zealand operations.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040105/55240_1.html 
http://www.thq.com

(Las Vegas) Wired News and CNET News.com on Monday published previews for this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is expected to draw over 110,000 consumer electronics professionals and enthusiasts to Las Vegas this week to see the industry's latest creations. Home networking and other convergence technologies are expected to be prominent at the trade show. "It comes down to having all the disparate technologies connected to each other or able to interact with each other," IDC analyst Alex Slawsby told Wired News. "It's centered on the home and then extends in different directions of a consumer's life: car, cell phone and other portable electronics like a digital music player."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61736,00.html
http://news.com.com/2100-7353_3-5134692.html

(San Francisco) CNET News.com and others have recently reported on rumors that Apple plans to introduce a new, lower capacity iPod priced at $100 during this week's Macworld Expo trade show. The company currently offers models ranging from a $299, 10GB iPod to a $499, 40GB model. It's unclear whether a new line of iPods would contain hard drives, as do the current line, or be flash-memory based -- as are competing models in the $100 price range from Rio, Creative and others.
http://news.com.com/2100-1041-5134102.html
http://www.nypost.com/business/14823.htm 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/30/BUG3C406T61.DTL

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