Main Stories
o RealNetworks, IBM to Provide Digital Media Content Distribution Service
o TouchTunes Wins 'Net Jukebox Patent Ruling Against Rival Ecast
o South Korea Added to List of Pirate-Friendly Nations; May Face Sanctions
o AOL Ad Sales Head to Step Down After Just Six Months  
o PC Maker HP Commits Resources to Protecting Media Copyrights  
o Negotiation Period Opens for New Streaming Music Royalty Rates

o Briefly Noted: Epson - digital TV/printer, Microsoft - SPOT smart wristwatches, Heineken - RealNetworks, Shared Media Licensing - Sir Mix-A-Lot, MusicRebellion.com, Principle Solutions - TVG Vision, Kazaa - "malware"

Las Vegas -- Media delivery technology provider RealNetworks and computing giant IBM announced that they have partnered to create a framework for digital media services, which will allow providers to digitize and distribute their audio and video content without having to build their own technology infrastructure. The companies said the combination of IBM's software that manages digital assets and provides e-commerce features with RealNetworks' recently released Real 10 digital media platform, will provide an alternative to Microsoft's Windows products for businesses delivering digital media services like Internet-delivered TV programming, mobile music services and in-car digital music. "Together we will enable our global customers to quickly offer secure and high-quality media services to their consumers whenever they want it and wherever they want it -- at their TV, their PC, in their car, or with their phone," said RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040109/sff010_1.html 
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5138040.html 
http://www.ibm.com 
http://www.realnetworks.com
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o TouchTunes Wins 'Net Jukebox Patent Ruling Against Rival Ecast

Las Vegas -- TouchTunes, a manufacturer of Internet-connected digital jukeboxes found in bars and restaurants, announced on Friday that a federal court granted summary judgment to its claim that rival Ecast is infringing on TouchTunes' technology with its own digital jukeboxes. Both companies' jukeboxes download music in MP3 form over the Internet to an internal hard drive, rather than rotating a physical library of CDs. TouchTunes is now seeking an injunction against Ecast to prevent further infringement, as well as monetary damages, with these issues expected to go to trial in early 2004.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040108/nyth207_1.html 
http://www.ecastinc.com 
http://www.touchtunes.com
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o South Korea Added to List of Pirate-Friendly Nations; May Face Sanctions

Washington -- The Bush administration on Thursday added South Korea, a nation where two-thirds of the residents have high-speed Internet access, to its "priority watch list" of countries that have lax protection against music and movie piracy, The Washington Post reported. South Korea is now among countries including Russia, Taiwan and India that the U.S. has asked to pass tougher anti-piracy laws and foster enforcement or else face trade sanctions. "Open markets and the protection of intellectual property are critical to the continued growth of our economy, and we'll vigorously press our trading partners to follow the rules," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. "We express the position that it is very disappointing and regrettable," Hyunju Lee, counselor for economic affairs at the South Korean embassy, told The Times. "We did our best effort and made substantial improvements in the [intellectual property] protection area in cooperation with the U.S. during the last year. In view of that, we cannot understand why they added us to the watch list."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1633-2004Jan8.html
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o AOL Ad Sales Head to Step Down After Just Six Months

Dulles, Va. -- Following just six months on the job, the head of America Online's ad sales unit is stepping down, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Executive Vice President Lisa Brown will step down for "health and personal reasons," she said. Through Brown was reportedly being investigated for more than $40,000 in questionable expense reports, a person close to Brown said that her departure was not related. The Journal reported that AOL is in discussions to replace Brown with Michael Kelly, currently an ad sales executive for Time Warner. The move marks the third time in the past year that AOL has shifted the management of its advertising sales group.
http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/040109/0115000050_1.html
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o PC Maker HP Commits Resources to Protecting Media Copyrights

Las Vegas -- PC maker HP announced this week that it will place new emphasis within the company on the protection of intellectual property, as it steps up its commitment to building, acquiring or licensing content protection technologies for HP devices. The company said it will "strive to build every one of its consumer devices to respect digital rights." As part of its commitment, HP said it will build support for the "broadcast flag" -- a digital code inserted into content that lets owners prevent it from being shared online -- into its televisions, media hubs and Media Center PCs beginning in July. HP said the broadcast flag will not stop consumers from making multiple copies of digital content and sharing it within a home network, or storing it on physical media like DVDs.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040109/95211_1.html 
http://news.com.com/2100-7353-5138044.html 
http://www.hp.com
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o Negotiation Period Opens for New Streaming Music Royalty Rates

Washington -- The U.S. Copyright Office this week announced the opening of voluntary negotiations between record labels and webcasters to determine new royalty rates for streaming music online. The current rates, which expire this year, were arrived upon only after a bitter and prolonged arbitration process that some small webcasters are still protesting as being prohibitively high for them to continue broadcasting. Another CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel) organized by the Copyright Office will be convened if new rates for the period of Jan. 1, 2005 through Dec. 31, 2006 cannot be agreed upon in the open market. The current negotiation period will remain open for six months.
http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2004/69fr689.html 
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5136949.html

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>Sr. Sales Executive – Media, Entertainment and Aggregator

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(Las Vegas) Printer maker Epson this week became yet another PC equipment maker to branch out into the digital television market -- joining Gateway, HP and Dell -- with the introduction of its own line of digital TVs that can display as well as print digital photos. Users will be able to plug the memory card from a digital camera into the front of the set, view and crop their pictures, and print 4 x 6 photos on the internal printer for $0.30 each. The printer will also be removable so it can be replaced when newer models are released.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/technology/circuits/08teev.html
http://www.epson.com

(Las Vegas) Microsoft this week announced that the first smart wristwatches to support its SPOT technology -- which downloads data like weather and news over the FM radio band -- have shipped to retailers. Apart from the cost of a smart watch, which are available from designers Fossil and Suunto, users must join MSN Direct for a monthly subscription rate of $9.95 or an annual payment of $59, plus a $60 activation fee.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040107/sfw130_1.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/technology/circuits/08stat.html
http://www.msndirect.com

(White Plains, N.Y.) Beer importer Heineken USA announced on Friday a promotional partnership with RealNetworks -- which this week announced plans to launch a digital music download store within its RealPlayer 10 media player software. Running from Memorial Day through July, 2004, the promotion will put a code redeemable for two free song downloads from RealNetworks on specially marked 12-packs of Heineken.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040109/sff024_1.html 
http://www.heineken.com 
http://www.realnetworks.com

(Seattle) Shared Media Licensing announced that Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Sir Mix-A-Lot has released fifteen new tracks on his website in its "Weed" format, which allows songs to be shared over the Internet while earning revenue for artists. A forwarded Weed file will play three times for free on any Windows PC before purchase is required. The file may then be stored on up to 3 PCs, burned to CD or transferred to a portable device. If the Weed file is then forwarded to another user who purchases it, the sender earns a payment for helping aid in distribution.
http://www.weedwarehouse.com 
http://sirmixalot.info

(Indianapolis, Ind.) Online music retailer MusicRebellion.com this week began offering digital songs for sale using a new payment scheme that begins pricing for all tracks at $0.10, with the price raising or lowering based upon demand as market conditions change. Indiana-based Digonex Technologies, the parent company of MusicRebellion.com, developed the consumer demand-driven pricing system used by the site. The company said the special $0.10 base rate would only be available for a limited time. "Our behaviorally based download model is predicated on the belief that the public will purchase music legally when given a fair price, a quality product, and an easy to use system," said Digonex's Jeremy Eglen.
http://www.musicrebellion.com

(Rogers, Ark.) Principle Solutions, a developer of technology that censors language, violence and sexual content on DVD movies, on Friday announced a new product, TVG Vision, which will be released in the spring. Developed in conjunction with Tree House Digital, the technology embedded in DVD player microchips will skip or mute undesirable content within the movie in real-time using frame accurate technology. Arkansas-based Principle Solutions, which will bundle TVG Vision with its TV Guardian product -- said that chipmakers including MediaTek, Zoran, LSI Logic and ESS Technology have said they will create chips that support TVG Vision.
http://www.tvguardian.com

(San Francisco) Wired News on Friday reported that, according to research from security firm TruSecure, 45% of the software programs offered on the Kazaa file-sharing network contain some kind of malicious code, such as a computer virus. The "malware" was not found in any music or movie files, but rather in executable files (.exe) for software such as files purporting to be free versions of Microsoft Office. Additional data from virus-tracker the Wild List found that the number of types of viruses circulating through Kazaa increased 133% in 2003.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61852,00.html
http://www.kazaa.com

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