archives

o Four Studios Adopt New Release Format Technology Developed by JVC
o Sony to Release Linux Developer Kits for PlayStation 2
o CNET: Rep. Boucher Speaks Out On Changing Copyright Law
o Consumer Group Investigates Realignment of FTC, DOJ Merger Reviews
o CD Warehouse Merger with Online Retailer Djangos.com Still Alive
o Briefly Noted: MusicMatch - subscriptions for Macs, AT&T Wireless
Services - Audible, Fandango - D.C., NetReach, Hewlett-Packard -
DreamWorks SKG, Yahoo - SportingNews.com, Kontiki, Rage Software -
"Rocky," Wink Communications - The Weather Network, Sonic Solutions -
Fujitsu, Ritek Global Media - Fox, Penton Digital Media Research, Video
forensics
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o Four Studios Adopt New Release Format Technology Developed by JVC

Los Angeles -- Four Hollywood film studios have announced that they will
begin to release films on a new format developed by JVC called D-Theater,
a copy-protected variant of the digital D-VHS format. Artisan
Entertainment, DreamWorks SKG, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios
will release the first encrypted D-Theater films later this year. The new
digital videotapes have a 44GB capacity, which can hold 4 hours of
high-definition film or TV content or 50 hours of standard TV programming
on a single cassette. The purchase of a D-Theater compatible D-VHS video
recorder -- priced by JVC at $2000 -- will be necessary to view D-Theater
movies. "The D-VHS format offers superior picture quality to any other
format in existence today and the solid copyright protection technology
built into the D-Theater system makes the format extremely attractive to
us as content providers," said Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
president Patricia Wyatt. In comparison to DVD, the D-VHS format offers
1,080 lines of resolution on a TV, while the DVD format offers 500 lines
of resolution.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/220300018&ticker=
http://www.jvc.com/product.jsp?productId=PRD4603000
_____________________________________________

o Sony to Release Linux Developer Kits for PlayStation 2

New York -- Sony Computer Entertainment of America announced on Wednesday
that it will release "Linux for PlayStation 2," a software and hardware
kit that will allow Linux operating system-based programs to run on the
PlayStation 2 video game console. Analyst firm IDC predicts that the open
source Linux operating system will grow to a 38 percent market share
worldwide by 2004, taking some of the market from competitors such as
Microsoft's Windows and Apple's Mac OS. Sony's $199 developer's kit,
available in May, will let programmers create new software to run on the
PlayStation 2. Sony released a beta version of Linux for PlayStation 2 in
Japan to 7,900 programmers, and said it has received almost 30,000
inquiries about its plans to make Linux developer kits available for the
video game console.
http://www.playstation2-linux.com
http://www.us.playstation.com
_____________________________________________

o CNET: Rep. Boucher Speaks Out On Changing Copyright Law

San Francisco -- CNET on Wednesday featured an opinion piece written by
U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) entitled "Time to rewrite the DMCA," which
details the Congressman's efforts to introduce changes to the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act on behalf of consumers. In the article, Boucher
details the flaws he sees in the DMCA, including the erosion of "fair
uses" of copyrighted material that had been available to consumers and
other groups until the DMCA's inception in 1998.
http://news.com.com/2010-1078-825335.html
http://www.house.gov/boucher/
_____________________________________________

o Consumer Group Investigates Realignment of FTC, DOJ Merger Reviews

Washington, D.C. -- The Center for Digital Democracy, an Internet-focused
consumer group, is taking steps to investigate whether lawyers
representing media companies played a role in the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) and U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) recent plans to change their
roles in antitrust reviews of media and entertainment company mergers,
Newsbytes reported. The changes were set to go into effect until Sen.
Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) opposed them and called for Senate hearings on the
matter. The Center for Digital Democracy alleges that a committee that
originally advised the FTC and DOJ on the proposed changes was filled with
attorneys who now represent media companies that would prosper from having
the FTC taken out of the loop on affected mergers. "It was only at the FTC
where consumer advocates and competitors were able to wage an effort to
impose some safeguards on the deal [between AOL and Time Warner]," Center
for Digital Democracy executive director Jeffrey Chester told Newsbytes.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174043.html
http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/antitrustFOIA.html
_____________________________________________

o CD Warehouse Merger with Online Retailer Djangos.com Still Alive

Oklahoma City -- Retail media store chain CD Warehouse said on Wednesday
that it has extended its letter of intent with online used music retailer
Djangos.com, giving the two companies until Feb. 28 to negotiate a
definitive agreement for the purchase of CD Warehouse by Djangos.com. The
companies have also received endorsement of Djangos.com's offer of $1.50 a
share for all of CD Warehouse's outstanding stock from the independent
investment bank of Houlihan Smith and Company. The companies previously
said on Jan. 2 that the letter of intent would terminate on Jan. 25 if a
definitive agreement were not reached. CD Warehouse operates retail stores
in 36 U.S. states that buy, sell and trade new and used CDs, DVDs and
video games.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020129/datu060_1.html
http://www.cdwarehouse.com
http://www.djangos.com
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Larta University Winter Workshops

Larta University, a service of the Los Angeles Regional Technology
Alliance, provides the entrepreneur with the "toolbox" you need to help
grow your company. Through a series of interactive workshops, our "guides"
help you turn your inspired ideas into sustainable advantage.

Session No. 8 - Pitching Your Company
Feb. 13 - Irvine | Feb. 14 - Santa Monica

For more information/to enroll:
http://www.larta.org/LartaU/Workshops.htm

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o Briefly Noted:

(San Diego) MusicMatch, a developer of media player technology and
provider of music subscription services, announced on Wednesday that it
has developed the first Mac compatible online music subscription service.
The Radio MX service costs $4.95 per month and gives users access to "near
on-demand" radio streams. Radio MX lets users enter several artists' names
and returns a radio station featuring those and similar artists; it also
creates a customized personal radio station for each user based on the
music they listen to on other stations, and lets them skip past tracks
they don't like. San Diego-based MusicMatch claims 90,000 subscribers for
the Radio MX service, which launched in May 2001.
http://www.musicmatch.com/info/company/press/releases/?year=2002&release=1

(Wayne, N.J.) AT&T Wireless Services said on Wednesday that it has
partnered with spoken word audio provider Audible to test automated
downloads of Audible.com content directly to cell phones and other
wireless devices over 2.5G wireless networks. New Jersey-based Audible
offers audio content including audio editions of books, newspapers,
magazines and radio programs. The two companies say they have been testing
the technology for some time, but did not announce details for when such
services would become available.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020130/302050_1.html
http://www.audible.com

(Washington, D.C.) Hollywood-based Fandango, a provider of online movie
ticket sales, said on Wednesday that it has begun offering print-at-home
movie ticketing for General Cinema Theatres in the Washington, D.C. area.
The General Cinema Mazza Gallerie Cinema will be the first theater to
offer the service, which lets consumers buy tickets online at Fandango.com
and print them out at home. The resulting ticket can then be handed
directly to an usher at the theater, bypassing the box office entirely.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/220300049&ticker=
http://www.fandango.com

(Santa Monica, Calif.) Universal Music and Video Distribution (UMVD)
announced the launch of NetReach, a new media division whose focus will be
developing product and artist awareness on and through the Internet. The
division was incubated by Universal Music Group's eLabs, where it was
responsible for creating and managing online fan groups and communities.
NetReach will also expand into video games, films and videos distributed
by UMVD. The new UMVD division will be managed by Angela Sanchez, manager
of Internet marketing.
http://www.umusic.com/static/press/01282002.htm

(Palo Alto, Calif.) Computer maker Hewlett-Packard announced on Wednesday
a three-year, multi-million dollar technology alliance with film studio
DreamWorks SKG, to provide computing infrastructure for the studio's
animation production facility in Glendale, California. HP will supply
technical workstations, servers, printers, networking and Linux
technologies to DreamWorks, and the two companies will explore
technologies that could enable creative collaboration by producers,
directors, animators and others working from remote locations. DreamWorks
previously used HP's products to produce its animated film "Shrek."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020130/300207_1.html
http://www.dreamworks.com

(Sunnyvale, Calif.) Yahoo on Wednesday announced a content distribution
agreement with SportingNews.com, whereby it will offer sports content from
the site on sports.yahoo.com. The two companies will also jointly market
free and for-pay fantasy sports games covering professional football,
basketball, baseball and hockey. The first installment of the agreement
will be a fantasy baseball game to be launched in mid-February. The
Sporting News is a Wired World company, owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul
Allen's Vulcan Ventures.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020130/300060_1.html
http://fantasysports.yahoo.com
http://www.sportingnews.com

(Mountain View, Calif.) Kontiki, a provider of digital media content
delivery networks, announced on Wednesday that it has completed beta
testing and has released version 1.0 of its network to customers. Mountain
View-based Kontiki's technology speeds the delivery of video and other
digital media by using 50,000 networked servers and PCs at the
"outer-edge" of the Internet. Kontiki's customers include TiVo, Palm, The
Sundance Film Festival and CNET.
http://www.kontiki.com/company/pressrelease020130.html

(Liverpool, England) Game developer Rage Software announced that it has
acquired the rights to create video games based on the MGM/United Artists
"Rocky" series of films. Titles for Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and
Nintendo Game Boy Advance are slated for release during the 2002 holiday
shopping season.
http://www.rage.com/html/rocky.asp

(Alameda, Calif.) Interactive TV firm Wink Communications said on
Wednesday that it will provide Canada-based TV network The Weather Network
the ability to deliver interactive programming and advertising to its
viewers who have Wink-enabled digital set-top boxes. The programming will
allow viewers to access local weather forecasts and buy products featured
on the network through their television's remote control. Alameda-based
Wink has a similar deal with The Weather Channel in the U.S.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020130/sfw053_1.html
http://www.theweathernetwork.com

(Novato, Calif.) Sonic Solutions, a provider of DVD creation and editing
software, announced on Wednesday that Fujitsu will include the company's
DVDit software on video-oriented PCs it sells in Japan. Novato-based Sonic
Solutions has a similar deal with Hewlett-Packard, and also provides its
DVD software technology to Microsoft and Adobe Systems.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020130/302024_1.html
http://www.sonic.com

(Los Angeles) Ritek Global Media announced on Wednesday that it has signed
a long-term agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment to be
Fox's exclusive DVD manufacturer in its international territories. Los
Angeles-based Ritek has facilities in Australia, China, Germany, Taiwan,
United Kingdom and the United States and provides DVD services to music
labels, independent software companies and movie studios.
http://www.ritekusa.com

(San Francisco) Publisher Penton Media said on Wednesday that it has
re-named Jon Peddie Associates, a market research firm it acquired in May
1999, as Penton Digital Media Research. The division will continue to
deliver reports on digital media, consumer media technology, software and
graphics to clients including set-top box and computer manufacturers, and
companies developing 3D software applications.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020130/302308_1.html
http://www.jpa.com

(San Francisco) Wired News reported on Wednesday on the use of video
forensics in the search for suspected terrorists. Law enforcement agencies
are digitizing surveillance video footage so that captured images can be
digitally enhanced to provide a better picture of suspects. Software
currently in use includes popular video editing software such as Adobe
Premiere and Avid Xpress, as well as more specialized programs developed
by Maryland-based Ocean Systems, Alabama-based Intergraph Government
Solutions and Boston-based Salient Stills.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,50036,00.html
http://www.oceansystems.com/dtective/
http://www.intergraph.com/govt/hardware/vas/va.asp
http://www.salientstills.com/product/product_intro.html
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