archives

o Napster Online for Now; Ruling Says Injunction "Warranted and Required"
o Digital Music Firm RioPort Receives Investments, Expands into Japan
o Paradise Music and Entertainment Agrees to Merge with IBall Media
o Webcasting Provider MindBlazer Raises $1.5 Million in Third Round
o Entertainment Site Designer MediaX Gets Investment from CTI II Limited
o Online Music Network ARTISTdirect to Buy Back 2 Million of its Shares
o Briefly Noted: RIAA - Bob Dole, The U.S. Copyright Office, Vodafone
Group - Sony PlayStation, Net Technologies - Voquette, Vingage Corporation- Sony, MusicMatch Jukebox Plus for Linux, Global Wave - eJay
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> Digital Media Wire Panel: "Interactive Gaming on the Internet"

Interactive gaming is a $6.5 billion market with sales rivaling those of
the motion picture box offices. Forrester Research forecasts that
interactive gaming will be a $26 billion market by 2005. Which
technologies and business models will drive this expanding market? Will
entertainment companies profit from gaming on the Internet? Digital Media
Wire will hold a dinner and panel discussion: "Interactive Gaming on the
Internet: Recent Developments and New Opportunities" on Thursday, February
15, 2001 at the Argyle Hotel in Los Angeles. Moderator: Victor Hwang, COO,
larta. Confirmed panelists: George Alexander, VP Media & Entertainment,
CAP Gemini Ernst & Young; Jim Charne, Attorney and former President,
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences; Brian Dearth, CEO, Hollywood
Stock Exchange; Chris Kantrowitz, CEO, The Groove Alliance; Mark
Kapczynski, Principal Consultant, Microsoft Media & Entertainment Group.

For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/panel1.html 
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> Job Postings: Dir./Mgr. of Public Relations, Biz Dev/Sales,
Project Mgr./E-Commerce

> Events: "2001 Wharton Technology & Media Conference"

Full Job/Event descriptions listed below "Briefly Noted" section or at
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/postings.html 

To Post a Job: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html 
To Post an Event: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html 
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o Napster Online for Now; Ruling Says Injunction "Warranted and Required"

San Francisco -- Despite a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in
San Francisco on Monday saying that an injunction -- which would shut down
the file-sharing aspects of Napster -- is "warranted and required," the
music-swap servers will remain online for the time being. A stay on the
injunction -- which the court ruled to be "overbroad" -- will remain in
effect until U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel modifies it under the
direction of the Appeals Court ruling. The Court did agree with Patel's
opinion that Napster is committing contributory copyright infringement by
providing a database of copyrighted music files for its users. Potential
damages awarded to record labels in the ongoing litigation could reach
massive figures, high enough to make Napster's planned subscription
service with Bertelsmann that would pay artists and copyright holders too
little, too late. EMusic.com chairman Bob Kohn told Wired News that his
company alone has served Napster with "tens of thousands" of notices that
the company's users were trading songs for which EMusic.com holds the
copyrights. Napster CEO Hank Barry responded to the ruling in a statement,
saying, "While we respect the Court's decision, we believe, contrary to
the Court's ruling today, that Napster users are not copyright infringers
and we will pursue every legal avenue to keep Napster operating." Barry
continued, "Under this decision, Napster could be shut down -- even before
a trial on the merits." Due to the Court's strong stance on the copyright
infringement issue, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
viewed the ruling to be in its favor. "This is a clear victory," said RIAA
CEO Hilary Rosen, in a statement. "The court of appeals found that the
injunction is not only warranted, but required. And it ruled in our favor
on every legal issue presented." Both sides now await a redrafting of the
original injunction by Judge Patel.

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-4793381-0.html?tag=cd_mh 
(text of ruling)

http://www.ce9.uscourts.gov 
http://www.riaa.org/PR_story.cfm?id=372 
http://www.inside.com/jcs/Story?article_id=23357&pod_id=9 
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010212/ts/tech_napster_dc_2.html 
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-4792577.html?tag=tp_pr 
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41752,00.html 
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o Digital Music Firm RioPort Receives Investments, Expands into Japan

San Jose, Calif. -- Digital music software developer RioPort announced on
Monday that it has secured new investments from a number of sources, and
will open RioPort KK -- a Japanese subsidiary based in Tokyo. Making
undisclosed investments in the Japanese venture were JAFCO Co. and
Softbank Internet Technology Funds. RioPort KK will provide e-commerce and
content delivery infrastructure development for Japanese online retailers,
as well as encoding, rights management and hosting services to content
holders. It will also provide software to Japanese Internet appliance and
digital home stereo manufacturers. Additionally, the company said on
Monday that digital rights management provider Macrovision has made an
undisclosed investment in the company. RioPort will use Macrovision's
rights management technology in future versions of its products.
http://www.rioport.com/RioCorpPressReleases/1,3614,,00.html?article_id=1000461 
http://www.rioport.com/RioCorpPressReleases/1,3614,,00.html?article_id=1000462 
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o Paradise Music and Entertainment Agrees to Merge with IBall Media

New York -- Paradise Music and Entertainment, an entertainment company
with Internet interests, announced on Monday that it has agreed in
principle to merge with music festival webcaster and digital music
retailer IBall Media. Under the proposed structure, shareholders of IBall
would receive shares in the combined company approximately equal to the
current issued and outstanding shares of Paradise. "Joining these two
companies allows us to pursue the growing array of opportunities in
traditional and digital music, as well as in the film and TV production
arenas," said Jesse Dylan, a director of New York-based Paradise. "IBall's
strategy fits nicely with Paradise's operating divisions, creating
expanded opportunities in both entertainment and advertising." Dylan said
on Monday that he will step down from his position as chairman and CEO to
focus on film projects. The company announced that David Pritchard has
been appointed its new CEO. Pritchard previously served as CEO of Film
Roman, which produces Fox's "The Simpsons" animated series. IBall chairman
and CEO Kelly Hickel will become chairman of the merged company.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010212/ny_paradis_3.html 
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010212/ny_paradis_2.html 
http://www.pdse.com 
http://www.iball.com/index.cfm 
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o Webcasting Provider MindBlazer Raises $1.5 Million in Third Round

Charlotte, N.C. -- MindBlazer, a provider of business-to-business
webcasting services, announced on Monday that it has raised $1.5 million
for its third round of funding. Previous investors Frontier Capital and
Piedmont Venture Partners made the investments; the company plans to close
out the round when it raises an additional $1 million. North
Carolina-based MindBlazer offers live and on-demand interactive webcasts
that companies use for sales, marketing and training purposes. The company
said it plans to become profitable by the end of 2001.
http://www.mindblazer.com 
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o Entertainment Site Designer MediaX Gets Investment from CTI II Limited

Los Angeles -- MediaX Corporation, an online entertainment network and web
design firm, announced on Monday that it has received a strategic
investment from Singapore-based CTI II Limited, an affiliate of Creative
Technology, Ltd. The amount of the investment -- which came in the form of
a stock purchase -- was not disclosed. Los Angeles-based MediaX creates
and hosts entertainment websites for musicians including Rod Stewart and
N'Sync, and also operates Amuznet.com and retail site Fumanskeeto.com. The
company recently partnered with Hewlett-Packard to offer on-demand
printing of fan posters from its sites.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010212/ca_mediax_.html 
http://www.mediax.com 
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o Online Music Network ARTISTdirect to Buy Back 2 Million of its Shares

Los Angeles -- In an effort to bolster its share price, online music
network ARTISTdirect on Monday authorized the buyback of 2 million of its
37.7 million outstanding shares. The expected offering range for the
buyback will be between $1.25 and $1.50 per share. Although the company's
stock has been trading below $1 dollar since the end of September, Los
Angeles-based ARTISTdirect believes it is being undervalued by investors.
"With our strong cash position and the significant discount to cash value
per share reflected in our trading price, our board of directors views the
tender offer as a prudent use of the company's resources," said
ARTISTdirect CEO Marc Geiger. This current offer is different than the
company's previously announced rescission offer, in which ARTISTdirect
said it planned to repurchase certain options and shares issued prior to
its March 2000 IPO.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010212/ca_artist_.html 
http://www.artistdirect.com 
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o Briefly Noted:

(New York) The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has hired
former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole as a strategic adviser
for its legal and lobbying team, Inside.com reported on Monday. The
recruitment of Dole and a number of other Republicans to the legal team is
a switch for the RIAA, which has traditionally favored Democrats. The
hiring of legal representatives with Washington ties displays the
importance that Congress could have with regard to issues such as digital
copyrights that Napster, MP3.com and others have introduced. Napster
attorney David Boies served as former Vice President Al Gore's lead
counsel during the legal skirmishes following the election.
http://www.inside.com/jcs/Story?article_id=23274&pod_id=9 
http://www.riaa.org 

(Washington, D.C.) The U.S. Copyright Office announced on Monday the
initiation of a six-month voluntary negotiation period for determining
reasonable rates and terms for the public performance of sound recordings
by new subscription services for digital music. The Copyright Office
defined a "new subscription service" as a "service that performs sound
recordings by means of noninteractive subscription digital audio
transmissions and that is not a preexisting subscription service or a
preexisting satellite digital audio radio service."
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/fedreg/2001/66fr9881.html 

(London) European wireless provider Vodafone Group announced that it has
established a long term-relationship with Sony's PlayStation video game
division to develop games for cell phones, Reuters reported on Monday. "We
are very excited about what this could mean for participative gaming and
information services as bandwidth expands on the cellular front," said
Chris Deering, president Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. In the
beginning, the service will allow Vodafone subscribers to download
PlayStation game tips to their phones.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-4789914.html?tag=mn_hd 
http://www.vodafone.com 
http://www.playstation.com 

(New York) Net Technologies, a developer of voice and Internet convergence
technologies, announced on Monday that it has partnered with Web audio
developer Voquette to provide complete online audio creation and delivery
services. As part of the agreement, the companies will work jointly on
marketing and development of their technology that allows companies to
record streaming audio content over the telephone. New York-based Net
Technologies' DoTell software takes spoken word from a telephone and
encodes it in MP3, Real, QuickTime and other formats.
http://www.nette.com 
http://www.voquette.com 

(Reston, Va.) Vingage Corporation, a provider of streaming media and DVD
authoring services, announced on Monday that it has licensed services to
Sony that will allow users to turn their digital pictures and video into
customized DVDs. Under the terms of the agreement, users of Sony's online
video sharing site ImageStation.com can use Virginia-based Vingage's DVD
Fulfillment Center to create DVDs from their own videos created in VHS,
VHS-C, Betacam, 8mm, Hi8, Digital8 and MiniDV formats.
http://www.imagestation.com/a2dvd/ 
http://vingage.com 

(San Diego) MusicMatch, a developer of digital music jukebox software,
announced on Monday the release of its Jukebox Plus player for the Linux
operating system. The $19.99 software will let Linux users create
unlimited CD-quality MP3 files, as well as play and organize their music
files. San Diego-based MusicMatch -- which has also created jukebox
software for Windows and Mac -- partnered with Minnesota-based CodeWeavers
to develop the Linux player.
http://www.musicmatch.com/info/company/press/releases/?year=2001&release=2 
http://www.codeweavers.com 

(Cannes, France) GlobalWave, a provider of secure broadband media
delivery, announced on Monday that it has partnered with European digital
music publisher eJay to provide digital music on a pay-per-play basis to
users. London-based GlobalWave's technology also allows movies, games and
other content to be delivered to users.
http://www.globalwave.net/pages/ne/pr2001/pr_12_02_01-ejay.html
http://www.ejay.com

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Job Postings:
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To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html

> Load Media Network, Director/Manager of Public Relations - Los Angeles

Develop and execute Load Media's PR strategy. Manage relationship
with external PR agency. Implement standard public relations and
communications practices including but not limited to: media tours, events
and trade shows, desk side briefings, media pitching, press release
development, approvals and distribution, and message documents. 4-8 years
marketing/advertising experience. Send resumes to danderson@loadmedia.com
http://www.loadmedia.com
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> everse, Business Development / Sales - Los Angeles

Internet professional services firm seeks star sales person to identify
and drive strategic business to closure. Assist clients in defining
business objectives, goals and budgets. Position requires establishing and
maintaining long-term relationships with client base. Bachelor's degree,
MBA preferred. History of closing web service business or agency-related.
Ability to generate leads through cold-calling. Send resumes to
stevey@everse.com
http://www.everse.com
______________________

> RichFX, Project Manager / E-commerce - New York City

Change the face of on-line shopping by helping to create the world's first
ONE PAGE storefront. This is an opportunity to work on truly breakthrough,
cutting-edge technology. Very competitive salary and equity in a
well-funded mature startup. Professional, but business casual environment.
Comprehensive benefits package. Send resumes to nyrecruiter@richfx.com
http://www.richfx.com

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Event Postings:
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To Post Events: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html

> 2001 Wharton Technology & Media Conference, Feb. 15-17 - Philadelphia

"Managing in a Converging World" -- Featured Keynote Speakers: George
Conrages, CEO, Akamai Technologies; Joseph P. Nacchio, Chairman and
CEO,Qwest Communications International; Ellen Hancock, Chairman and
CEO, Exodus Communications. Panelists include Hank Barry, Napster,
and Jonathan Sacks, AOL Service. For more info:
soyoung2@wharton.upenn.edu
http://www.whartontechmedia.com
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