archives

o Judge Appoints Mediator in Napster Case
o Stan Lee Media Declares Bankruptcy
o RIAA Looks to Internet as Source of Decreased Singles Sales
o Sega, NTT DoCoMo to Develop Games Tying Arcades, Consoles and Wireless
o Supertracks to Cease Download Sales in Favor of Secure Streaming Service
o VideoState Acquiring Digital Image Distributor Busybox
o Briefly Noted: Echo Networks - Arista Records, Reciprocal -
HarperCollins, Pioneer - Gemstar-TV Guide, MP3.com, Creature Labs -
Motorola, WildTangent - TBS Superstation, PacketVideo - Swisscom Mobile,
LIPSinc - Digimask, Nokia - Radiolinja, Lignthingcast
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> Job Postings: Dir./Mgr. of Public Relations, Biz Dev/Sales, Project
Mgr./E-Commerce

> Events/Services: WebMessenger

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 Judge Appoints Mediator in Napster Case

San Francisco -- The judge in the copyright infringement case against
music file-sharing service Napster has appointed a mediator to aid in
setting damages expected to be rewarded to record labels, Newsweek
reported. U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel appointed retired
federal Judge Eugene Lynch to mediate between the two parties --even
before last week's Appeals Court ruling, the Associated Press reported --
quoting an attorney representing the record labels. "It was always our
position with Judge Lynch (that) the only thing that could be mediated
were damages for past infringements and the form of injunctive relief
going forward," said Russell Frackman, an attorney representing the
labels. "Any business resolution that Napster might be interested in would
have to be discussed ... with individual record companies." A ruling from
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last Monday kept a stay but directed
Judge Patel to revise the language of her injunction against Napster. The
RIAA then on Thursday filed a proposed revision of the injunction with the
court, saying that changes were made to coincide with the direction of the
Appeals Court ruling. Both sides are now awaiting Patel's revised
injunction, which will likely remove all copyrighted material for which
Napster does not hold permissions from its file-sharing service.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/533352.asp
http://www.riaa.org/PR_story.cfm?id=373
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o Stan Lee Media Declares Bankruptcy

Los Angeles -- Having exhausted other alternatives, online animation
company Stan Lee Media has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Unable to close on a bridge financing, the company laid off almost all of
its staff and ceased operations in December. The company's stock price
then dropped to the point that trading was halted on the Nasdaq. "As
previously announced, the company has been reviewing strategic
alternatives for the company since mid-December, and in connection with
this review has had discussions with a number of potential buyers and
strategic partners," said Kenneth Williams, CEO of Stan Lee Media. "Most
of these parties have indicated a preference for consummating any sale or
recapitalization under the protection of the courts." Los Angeles-based
Stan Lee Media was founded by Marvel Entertainment animator Stan Lee, who
created such comics as the X-Men and Spider-Man.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010216/ca_slee_ba.html
http://www.stanleemedia.com
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o RIAA Looks to Internet as Source of Decreased Singles Sales

Washington -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said
that the market for recorded music sharply declined in the second half of
2000, largely due to a decrease in the sales of CD singles. Singles sales
fell 38.8 percent in 2000, which the RIAA attributed to "changes in
consumer purchasing habits principally brought on by new options provided
by the Internet," according to a statement. In addition, the RIAA said
that, "while full-length CDs increased 3.1 percent in dollar value over
last year, manufacturers saw their bottom line drop nearly 7 percent in
unit shipments, while the dollar value of those units declined 1.8 percent
from $14.6 billion in '99 to $14.3 billion last year."
PriceWaterhouseCoopers tallied the figures from SoundScan retail sales
reports, which are based on manufacturers' shipments to retail outlets.
http://www.riaa.org/PR_story.cfm?id=374
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o Sega, NTT DoCoMo to Develop Games Tying Arcades, Consoles and Wireless

Tokyo -- Japanese cell phone maker NTT DoCoMo announced that it has signed
an agreement with Sega Corporation, to develop a service that combines the
company's I-mode phone with Sega's video arcade and console games. The
game service is expected to launch in the fall of 2001. DoCoMo also said
the two companies will study the possibility of a new service for 3G
wireless networks. Sega recently announced that it would exit the console
game business and end production of its Dreamcast console in March. The
company is now focusing on developing games for all consoles and offering
its game technology to other outlets, such as interactive television;
set-top box maker Pace Micro recently licensed Dreamcast technology for
use in its products.
http://www.nttdocomo.com/new/contents/01/whatnew0220.html
http://www.sega.com
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o Supertracks to Cease Download Sales in Favor of Secure Streaming Service

Portland, Ore. -- Supertracks, a developer of media delivery systems, said
that it will abandon sales of digital music downloads in favor of a
streaming service that it says will allow companies to turn a profit on
music streaming. Instead of providing costly continual access to streams
from the Internet, the company's Bridgeport service will offer about 300
songs at a time to users who will download them to their hard drive. The
songs -- which will be programmed by radio stations and webcasters -- can
then only be accessed from Supertracks' secure streaming music player.
Users will not be able to choose the ordering of songs, but can rate them
using software that will gradually learn a user's tastes and increase the
number of times well-liked songs are heard. Oregon-based Supertracks said
that the technology has the potential to save music providers up to 90
percent in streaming costs. The company plans to release the Bridgeport
service in March; a beta version is available to review at Jamplayer.net.
http://www.supertracks.com/press/releases/021901.asp
http://www.jamplayer.net
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o VideoState Acquiring Digital Image Distributor Busybox

Los Angeles -- Busybox, an online stock cinematography provider, announced
that it has offered London-based VideoState the option to acquire the
company's trade and assets for $3.8 million in cash and securities.
VideoState, a subsidiary of Convergence Holdings, will also undertake
marketing and distribution of Busybox digital image content primarily in
Europe and North America. Los Angeles-based Busybox announced layoffs in
December following the withdrawal of an acquisition offer from First
Entertainment Holdings Corp. The company's chairman and CEO, CFO and a
senior VP resigned from the company in November. Busybox offers
royalty-free stock video images that users can purchase online.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010219/ca_busybox_com_inc.html
http://www.busybox.com
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o Briefly Noted:

(San Francisco) Echo Networks, provider of an online community for
interactive music streaming, announced on Tuesday that it has signed an
agreement with Arista Records, giving Echo.com users on-demand access to
new releases from the label. San Francisco-based Echo Networks lets its
members create online communities where listeners hear a simultaneous
stream of music that directly reflects the members' aggregated song
ratings. Users can preview new releases from Arista artists like Outkast,
Dream and Run DMC and rate them; these ratings are then provided to Arista
as feedback.
http://www.echonetworks.com
http://www.arista.com

(New York) Secure digital distribution provider Reciprocal announced on
Tuesday that it has partnered with publisher HarperCollins, to provide
fulfillment for the company's global English-language e-book distribution
system. The service will allow HarperCollins to sell secure versions of
its e-books to online retailers in any country. The service will launch
with 15 titles published under the PerfectBound imprint in the U.S., the
U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
http://www.reciprocal.com/prm.asp
http://www.harpercollins.com

(Long Beach, Calif.) Pioneer has responded to patent infringement claims
made by Gemstar-TV Guide by saying that although the company has yet to be
served the complaint, the claims "appear to be part of Gemstar's
continuing efforts to monopolize the market for licensing interactive
electronic program technology and related markets," the company said in a
statement. "We will assert counterclaims in these actions as appropriate."
Gemstar has filed complaints against Pioneer, Scientific Atlanta, EchoStar
and SCI Systems for importing set-top boxes that contain interactive
program guides Gemstar says infringe on its patents.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010215/ok_tv_guid.html

(San Diego) MP3.com announced on Tuesday that it will offer the technology
to create branded "micro-sites" to publications that want to feature local
musicians' music. Publications like The Washington Post and Boston.com,
which is operated by New York Times Digital, have created such sites that
offer MP3s as well as concert listings for local artists.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010220/ca_mp3_com_customized.html
http://mp3.washingtonpost.com/
http://mp3.boston.com/

(London) Creature Labs, a developer of "artificial life" software, said
that it will jointly develop wireless games with Motorola for 2.5 and 3G
wireless networks. The games will be based on London-based Creature Labs'
software which lets users take care of virtual "pets." The first game --
"Sea-Monkeys" -- will reside on a Motorola server and not inside the
player's handset, allowing the game to remain active and requiring the
player to connect to the network periodically to check on the pet.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010219/il_motorola_games.html
http://www.creaturelabs.com
http://www.motorola.com

(Redmond, Wash.) Game developer WildTangent has partnered with TBS
Superstation to develop an online combat game based around the network's
"War Games." The show is being billed as an "in-depth television
presentation of authentic combat-readiness scenarios." Washington-based
WildTangent's game will follow the same path as the six military-style
missions from the television show.
http://alt.superstation.com/WarGames/P_WarGames
http://www.wildtangent.com

(Cannes, France) PacketVideo, a developer of software for wireless
streaming video, announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Swisscom
Mobile to test its MPEG-4 video streaming with wireless subscribers in
Switzerland. The trial will be available to subscribers on the GPRS
(General Packet Radio Service) wireless network who own phones or PDAs
with a video screen.
http://www.packetvideo.com/press/view.asp?id=83
http://www.swisscom.ch/gd/gd-en.html

(Morrisville, N.C.) LIPSinc, a provider of digital talking heads
technology, has announced a partnership with U.K.-based Digimask, to
co-develop "photo-realistic" talking heads -- also known as avatars --
that can be used for real-time interaction in online gaming and instant
messaging programs. The companies say their technology can lip synch audio
to a 3D character's facial expressions in real-time, which could be used
to interpret players' dialogue and movements in sports, roleplaying and
children's games.
http://www.lipsinc.com
http://www.digimask.com

(Helsinki) Nokia has partnered with Finland-based wireless provider
Radiolinja to provide subscribers with WAP-based wireless games.
Radiolinja will offer games titles like X-Men and Titan AE on the service.
http://www.nokia.com
http://www.radiolinja.fi/inenglish/index.shtml

(Alexandria, Va.) Virginia-based Lightningcast, a provider of ad insertion
technology for Internet audio and video, announced on Tuesday that Karl
Spangenberg has been appointed as president and chief executive officer.
Previously, Spangenberg served as president and COO of @plan, an online ad
research firm recently acquired by Doubleclick.
http://www.lightningcast.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
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> 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

> WebMessenger: Wireless and Streaming Media Software

WebMessenger does Premium Software Development for Wireless,
Medical, Online Media, and Internet Industries. Competitive Contractor:
California based development and management with oversees support.
Excellent client relationships with perfect referrals. Top-Notch staff:
PhDs and Masters in Computer Science with many years of experience.
Quality Assurance dept. that ensures the highest standards are met.
High-Speed product development cycle: 24-hour global operations. Cost
effective development.
Contact: Aaron Hirsch aaron@webmessenger.com 202-483-5999
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