MediaMorphosis: A Multimedia Leadership Retreat

* March 10-12, 2004, at the Four Seasons Newport Beach, CA
* Join the leaders and thinkers shaping the digital future at this international, inter-industry brainshare on media, technology and society. 
* More information

Main Stories
o Napster Comes Out Swinging After European Launch Delayed
o RealNetworks Buys PC Game Developer GameHouse for $35.6 Million
o Island Def Jam Head Lyor Cohen Hired As New CEO of Warner Music
o French Industry Group Joins Fight Against Song Swappers  
o Netscape Settles Trademark Suit with Playboy Over Search Keywords
o Italian Court OKs PlayStation "Mod Chips"
o Avid Acquires Digital Asset Management Firm NXN for $44 Million
o Phantom Game Console Developer Infinium Labs Raises $15 Million
o Philips to Mass-Produce Flexible Electronic Display for Newspapers

o Briefly Noted: Microsoft Xbox - OutKast, Musiwave - Pictones, Gamebike, RipDigital, Shawn Fanning - Snocap

Paris -- Internet music service Napster has struck out at European licensing groups, claiming that arcane and convoluted regulations are getting in the way of legal online music companies on the Continent. The attack comes after bureaucratic red tape over the weekend held up the planned European launches of Napster and Apple's iTunes. Napster CEO Chris Gorog said: "As each day passes that Napster isn't operating in Europe, substantial amounts of money are lost to pirates because there is no legal alternative available." According to industry experts, the recording labels worldwide lost nearly $2.5 billion to online piracy last year.
http://www.napster.com/press_releases/pr_040115.html
http://makeashorterlink.com/?W22A21037
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o RealNetworks Buys PC Game Developer GameHouse for $35.6 Million

Seattle -- Media delivery technology provider RealNetworks announced on Monday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire GameHouse, a developer and publisher of downloadable PC games, in a cash and stock deal valued at $35.6 million. Seattle-based GameHouse was the leading distributor of titles through RealNetworks' RealArcade, a service that allows users to trial and purchase PC games online. The company, which generated $10 million in revenue in 2003, develops casual game titles including "Super Collapse II," "Puzzle Inlay" and "TextTwist." GameHouse will continue to distribute its PC games through existing partners Comcast, Earthlink, Pogo.com, MSN, Shockwave, Sony, and Yahoo.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040126/sfm116_1.html
http://www.realnetworks.com 
http://www.gamehouse.com
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o Island Def Jam Head Lyor Cohen Hired As New CEO of Warner Music

New York -- Former Universal Music Group executive Lyor Cohen, the CEO of Island Def Jam Recordings, has been hired away to become chairman and CEO of the new Warner Music Group. Cohen, who is credited with helping to launch and foster the careers of hip-hop artists including the Beastie Boys, Run DMC and Public Enemy, will take on his new position following the closing of the $2.6 billion acquisition of Warner Music Group by a consortium of investors led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr.
http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news04864
http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/26/news/companies/warner_music.reut
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o French Industry Group Joins Fight Against Song Swappers

Paris -- French music industry trade body SNEP announced that it has joined the U.S. and the U.K. in the battle against illegal song swappers. The No. 4 music market in the world is facing its first annual sales decline for several years and has vowed to fight back by filing lawsuits against individuals, thereby following in the footsteps of its U.S. and U.K. homologues -- the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), respectively. Recorded music sales in France dropped by 14.6% last year to about 2 billion euro ($2.5 billion), according to SNEP General Manager Herve Rony.
http://www.disqueenfrance.com/actu/actualite/default.asp
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o Netscape Settles Trademark Suit with Playboy Over Search Keywords

Dulles, Va. -- Netscape, the browser developer owned by America Online, has settled a trademark infringement suit with publisher Playboy over its sales of keyword advertising spots using Playboy-trademarked terms like "playmate" and "playboy," CNET News.com reported. The settlement, terms of which were not disclosed, follows an appeals court ruling last week that said Playboy could go ahead with its case against Netscape. The appeal followed a lower court's ruling that Netscape and partner Excite made "fair use" of Playboy's trademarks when it sold banner ads to adult sites that came up when users entered search terms like "playboy."
http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5146502.html
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o Italian Court OKs PlayStation "Mod Chips"

London -- An Italian court has ruled that "mod chips" for Sony's PlayStation 2, which allow the console to play imported game discs and other software, are legal and in fact encourage healthy competition for Sony, U.K. news site TheRegister reported. The ruling comes out of a hearing held after Italian police confiscated a shipment of modified PlayStation 2 consoles. The court ruled that the seizure was illegal, relying on an Italian law that says consumers may do whatever they wish with goods once legally purchased. Additionally, the court said that mod chips helped to "avoid monopolistic positions" and "improve the possibilities for use of the PlayStation." The ruling is a blow to Sony and other gaming firms, which have won rulings in other nations banning the sale of mod chips.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/35097.html

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oAvid Acquires Digital Asset Management Firm NXN for $44 Million

Tewksbury, Mass. -- Avid Technologies, a provider of professional video and audio editing equipment, announced on Monday that it has acquired NXN Software, a German provider of digital asset management software for the entertainment and computer graphics industries, for about $44 million. Companies including Sony Pictures Imageworks, China Central Television and Electronic Arts currently use NXN's alienbrain software to manage a range of differing digital files -- such as 3D models, textures, video, audio, source code and office documents. "Alienbrain systems will enhance the asset and production management features of Avid's content creation tools, making it easy for customers to track, store, and control virtually every version and type of file in a digital project," said Avid president and CEO David Krall.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040126/265428_1.html 
http://www.nxn-software.com 
http://www.avid.com
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o Phantom Game Console Developer Infinium Labs Raises $15 Million

Sarasota, Fla. -- Infinium Labs, developer of a video game console that plays PC games downloaded over a secure broadband network, announced on Monday that it has received a $15 million financing commitment. Investors buying shares in the company included SBI-Brightline VI and Infinium Investment Partners. Florida-based Infinium Labs said the financing will allow it to enter the manufacturing stage for its Phantom Game Console, which it previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month. At launch, the $300 device is expected to come loaded with 50 or so games, and will require that users pay a $10 monthly fee to access the broadband PC gaming service.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040126/phm018_1.html 
http://www.phantom.net
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o Philips to Mass-Produce Flexible Electronic Display Panel for Newspapers

Amsterdam -- Dutch Consumer electronics firm Philips on Monday announced plans to release a flexible electronic display panel that can download newspapers and other text from the Internet and then roll up into a pen-sized holder, Reuters reported. The Philips product will utilize technology developed by Cambridge, Mass.-based E Ink, which partnered with Philips in early 2001 to develop its technology that uses tiny cells whose color may be manipulated electronically. The Philips display may be connected to a mobile phone for downloading content, the company said. "We can produce this in batches. It's no longer a research project," a spokesman at Philips Research told Reuters. "We're going to build a pilot line that should be ready in 2005 to make one million displays a year."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?X27321237 
http://www.eink.com

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> Complete Information for Department of Homeland Security

Small businesses wanting to do business with the government face unique challenges when entering the federal marketplace. The 2003- 2004 Directory of Homeland Security includes a detailed list of procurement information and small business government contacts for the various federal departments and agencies. Contact names, titles, phone and fax numbers and descriptions are included in the listings. The Department of Homeland Security portion of the directory has entire section titled, "Doing Business with the Department of Homeland Security." To order the 2003-2004 edition, go to: http://www.tech-directories.com/dmw.htm
 

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(Redmond, Wash.) Microsoft has partnered with Universal/Arista Records artists OutKast on a promotion for its Xbox video game console, that will let registered members of its Xbox Live online game service challenge the hip-hop artists in online gameplay. The Game with Fame promotion will launch on Feb. 4, during the week of the recording industry's Grammy Awards.
http://www.xbox.com/en-us/live/events/gamewithfame-outkast-main.htm

(Paris) Musiwave, a French mobile entertainment publisher, has launched a new product called Pictones, which combine an actual song snippet ringtone with a video clip of the song to create a picture ringtone. The company, which debuted the technology at the MIDEM European music conference, said Pictones are already compatible with 3G handsets from Nokia and others and are currently being considered by a number of wireless network operators.
http://www.musiwave.net/news.php?article=news/launch_pictone.php

(Denver, Colo.) Two Denver-based orthopedic surgeons have developed a new video game accessory that provides exercise in addition to entertainment, by turning a stationary bicycle into a game controller. The Gamebike, manufactured by CatEye, is compatible with Sony's PlayStation console and works best with games featuring race cars, speedboats, motorcycles, and other titles that feature speed, steering and braking elements.
http://www.cateye.com 
http://www.gamebike.com

(San Francisco) Wired News on Monday reported on RipDigital, a company that offers to convert audio CDs collections into MP3 format for a fee. Consumers ship their CDs to the company and several days later receive either DVDs or an external hard drive loaded with 224kbps MP3 versions of their CDs. The company charges $129 for 100 CDs, with prices dropping to about $1 per CD as volume increases.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62027,00.html
http://www.ripdigital.com

(San Francisco) CNET News.com on Monday reported on Snocap, a new venture formed by Shawn Fanning and several of the early investors and developers of the original Napster service. Snocap is developing technology that would identify songs being traded on peer-to-peer services like Kazaa and Grokster and attach a price tag to them. Several record industry executives said they said the idea sounds promising; however, to succeed Snocap would also need the support of the peer-to-peer networks themselves.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5147386.html 
http://www.snocap.com

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