archives

o NYTimes: Labels Sought Napster Settlement to Avoid Copyright Disclosures
o Publisher Eric Corley Plans to Take DVD Encryption Case to Supreme Court
o Ford Appeals Ruling On Linking FuckGeneralMotors.com to Ford.com Site
o Report: Internet-Based Video-on-Demand Won't Arrive Until 2005
o Disney Interactive to Publish Games for Nintendo Game Boy Advance
o Streaming Media Corp. Buys Technology Assets from E-Media
o Briefly Noted: MPEG (Visual) Patent Portfolio License, PoGo MP3 player,
Sonicblue - cheap DVRs, Los Angeles Times - Tech Times, DivXNetworks - The
Jim Henson Company, New online ad formats, New Scientist - "copyleft"
experiment
_____________________________________________

o NYTimes: Labels Sought Napster Settlement to Avoid Copyright Disclosures

New York -- The major record labels currently embroiled in a three-year
copyright infringement suit against Napster recently agreed to seek a
settlement after a judge agreed to let Napster to embark on "potentially
damaging inquiries" on the managing of copyrights they purport to own, The
New York Times reported on Thursday. According to recently-released court
documents, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel was ready to let Napster investigate
whether the labels colluded to prevent licensing of music to online
companies, and whether or not they have satisfactory documentation to
prove they own all of the copyrights they claim to have control over, as
well as online distribution rights for those songs. Patel granted a
request by both parties to put the trial on hold for 30 days while they
try to negotiate a settlement. Cary Sherman, general counsel for the
Recording Industry Association of America, told The Times that the reason
for its seeking a settlement now is because Napster is almost out of money
and would likely not be able to pay the millions in damages for previous
copyright infringements on its file-sharing service.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/31/technology/31NAPS.html
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o Publisher Eric Corley Plans to Take DVD-Cracking Case to Supreme Court

Los Angeles -- Eric Corley, publisher of the hacker magazine 2600 that was
sued by the motion picture industry for publishing computer code that can
crack the copy-protection security on DVD discs, told Reuters in a recent
interview that if his current appeal is denied he plans to take the case
before the Supreme Court. "We have every intention of continuing to
challenge this ruling because this is such a vital issue," Corley said.
The publisher is currently awaiting a reply to his request for a rehearing
before the entire 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Court in New York; if the
request is denied, his next and last legal recourse will be before the
U.S. Supreme Court. Lawyers for Corley argued in his defense that the
DeCSS code he published should be protected as speech by the First
Amendment, and should not be subject to prosecution under a provision of
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that criminalizes the circumvention
of a copy-protection scheme on digital media.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-826710.html
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases/20020114_ny_eff_pr.html
http://www.2600.com
_____________________________________________

o Ford Appeals Ruling On Linking FuckGeneralMotors.com to Ford.com Site

New York -- In another case involving 2600 magazine publisher Eric Corley,
The Ford Motor Company has filed an appeal of 2600's victory in a case
where Ford asked a judge to stop Corley from linking his
FuckGeneralMotors.com website to Ford's own Ford.com site. The Eastern
Michigan District Court denied Ford's claims of trademark infringement and
ruled in favor of Corley. "Trademark law does not permit [Ford] to enjoin
persons from linking to its homepage simply because it does not like the
domain name or other content of the linking webpage," Judge Robert H.
Cleland wrote in his decision. The trademark argument also likely lost
steam because the domain does not mention Ford, but rather its competitor
General Motors. Ford has appealed the decision to the 6th Circuit Court of
Appeals. "We're committed to defending ourselves and the 'Net community
against this kind of attack," Corley wrote in a note on 2600.com. "But it
means yet more money will have to be spent in order to do this and more
time and resources wasted on something that should never have been brought
to court in the first place."
http://www.2600.com/news/display.shtml?id=985
http://www.2600.com/news/display.shtml?id=915
http://www.fuckgeneralmotors.com
_____________________________________________

o Report: Internet-Based Video-on-Demand Won't Arrive Until 2005

Stamford, Conn. -- Internet-based video-on-demand services, which let
consumers choose movies they want to watch and pay for them to be streamed
or downloaded to their computers, will not be a significant distribution
channel until 2005, according to a report released Thursday by
Connecticut-based analyst firm Gartner G2. The study points out that
today, only 10 percent of the U.S. has the broadband connection necessary
to deliver Internet video-on-demand, and only 2 percent of the 156 million
adult U.S. Internet users say they have purchased or downloaded a digital
movie or video. Gartner also predicts that even three years from now,
Internet-based video-on-demand delivered by companies such as Intertainer,
Movielink and Movies.com will account for only 2 percent of total movie
distribution revenue. The report did not, however, take into account the
growing number of cable and satellite-delivered video-on-demand services
being developed by the major operators in these areas.
http://www.gartnerg2.com/research/rpt-1201-0203.asp
_____________________________________________

o Sonicblue to Introduce Cheap DVRs, Combination DVR-DVD Player

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Consumer electronics firm Sonicblue said on
Thursday that it plans to introduce a new digital video recorder into the
market in the second half of the year that is cheaper than all currently
available models. Features will include the ability to stream recorded TV
programs from the device to other TVs in the home. "With our mass market
DVR product, we have the objective of replacing the VCR in consumers'
homes. Through fundamental technology advancements and high volume
supplier partnerships, we have the ability to profitably offer DVR
solutions to consumers at prices planned to be below those being offered
by our competitors," said Sonicblue CEO Ken Potashner. CNET reported that
the new low-cost devices will have smaller hard drives, but will also
feature the added functionality of DVD playback. Sonicblue also affirmed
that it will continue to manufacture high-end digital video recorders such
as its ReplayTV 4000.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020131/310037_1.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-827418.html
http://www.sonicblue.com
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o Disney Interactive to Publish Games for Nintendo Game Boy Advance

Burbank, Calif. -- Disney Interactive, a developer and distributor of
interactive entertainment based on the Disney brand, announced on Thursday
that it will publish a range of titles for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance
handheld video game console. The first title scheduled is "Peter Pan:
Return to Never Land," which will be released on Feb. 15 in conjunction
with the theatrical release of Disney's new animated feature "Disney's
Return to Never Land." Burbank-based Disney Interactive also plans to
release titles based on two additional animated features: "Disney's Lilo
and Stitch," which releases in theaters in June, and "Disney's Treasure
Planet," which releases in theaters in November. "To complement our
licensing strategy and support a number of company initiatives we are very
excited to expand our offering of Game Boy Advance titles through internal
publishing," said Steve Finney, senior vice president and general manager,
Disney Interactive, North America.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/220310089&ticker=
http://disney.go.com/disneyinteractive/flash/index.html
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o Streaming Media Corp. Buys Technology Assets from E-Media

Stamford, Conn. -- E-Media Corp., a provider of streaming media
technologies, has sold key technology assets to New Jersey-based Streaming
Media Corp., a provider of advanced content delivery technology. Financial
terms of the deal were not disclosed. Streaming Media acquired
Connecticut-based E-Media's technology for maintaining on-demand content,
providing closed captioning services, ad insertion tools and its
web-hosting infrastructure.
http://www.smc.net/news_events/emedia.htm
http://www.e-media.com
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March 19-23, 2002
Expo March 21-23, 2002
San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA
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o Briefly Noted:

(Denver) MPEG LA, the licensing body in charge of technology related to
MPEG video compression, announced on Thursday that it will provide access
to all essential MPEG-4 technology through a single license called the
MPEG-4 (Visual) Patent Portfolio License. The license will include
technology from patents held by 18 companies, including Microsoft, Sony
and Philips. "The license has been specially designed so that reasonable
royalties are shared fairly by a variety of industry participants in order
to stimulate early, rapid and widespread MPEG-4 product investment,
development, deployment and use," said MPEG LA CEO Baryn S. Futa. Exact
terms and royalty payment rates for the license are available through a
link below.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020131/310215_1.html
http://www.mpegla.com

(Brea, Calif.) PoGo Products, a manufacturer of consumer electronics
devices, on Thursday released its RipFlash Recordable MP3 Player, a
portable device that can record audio in MP3 format from outside sources
through a line-in connection. In addition to playing MP3s and recording
voice through an internal mic, the player can connect to and record from a
portable CD player, record player, tape player, traditional radio or other
sources. The $198 device comes with 128MB of Flash memory and an
additional slot for adding more memory.
http://www.pogoproducts.com/pr_3.html

(Los Angeles) The Los Angeles Times on Thursday announced that it would
discontinue its weekly technology-focused insert, "Tech Times." The
company said the decision was a result of its "ongoing efforts to make
optimal use of the space available in the newspaper." Added coverage of
technology will now appear in the Monday Business section and Thursday
Calendar Weekend section of the newspaper.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/custom/techtimes/la000007680jan31.story?coll=la%2Dtechnology%2Dtech%5Ftimes

(San Diego, Calif.) DivXNetworks, a provider of video compression
technology that helps shrink video files so they can more quickly be sent
across the Internet, announced on Thursday that it has licensed its codec
to The Jim Henson Company, creators of "The Muppets." Los Angeles-based
Jim Henson Company will use the technology to compress video clips on
promotional CD-ROMs it distributes in celebration of the 25th anniversary
of "The Muppet Show."
http://www.divxnetworks.com
http://www.henson.com

(New York) The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported on new online ad
formats that feature animated ad content moving across the screen on top
of actual news or other content on major websites. A recent ad for
Discovery's Animal Planet cable TV network on Weather.com featured an
animated lizard that crawls out from under a map on the site and scurries
across the screen. Sites such as ABCNews.com, MSNBC.com and NYTimes.com
are also experimenting with new ad formats in an attempt to woo
advertisers during an advertising revenue decline.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/697107.asp?0dm=C11OT

(London) New Scientist on Thursday announced an experiment using the idea
of "copyleft." The site has published an article on the topic of open
source software and copyrights, and announced that any reader is allowed
to provide feedback, copy the article, redistribute it, modify or reissue
it, without fear of violating New Scientist's copyright of the article.
The open source movement deals with free circulation of knowledge, and is
the basis of concepts like the Linux operating system. "No-one's really
sure what the benefits of this experiment will be, but if it works it
could mean profound changes in publishing, technology, music, even
consumer products," wrote New Scientist editor-in-chief Alun Anderson in
an email to New Scientist readers.
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/copyleft
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/copyleft/copyleftart.jsp
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