archives

o Supreme Court to Review Copyright Term Extensions
o Copyright Office Delivers Webcasting Royalty Rate Proposal
o Napster Going Back to Court As Month-Long Suspension of Lawsuit Expires
o MGM Tests Internet Video-On-Demand With CinemaNow
> Digital Media Wire Panel: Interactive Games -- L.A. | S.F. | New York
o Briefly Noted: Music Choice - Alliance Entertainment, Nextel - XSVoice,
Philips - wireless streaming, Cable and Wireless - En-Tranz, Zoran Corp. -
Sanyo - TV Guardian, SRS Labs - Sharp, Openwave - In-Fusio, CinemaPop,
Macrovision - DreamWorks SKG
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o Supreme Court to Review Copyright Term Extensions

Washington, D.C. -- The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that will
have bearing on when copyrighted works enter the public domain, the time
at which anyone can make use of them without permission or payments to the
creator. The case is an appeal, brought by Stanford law professor Lawrence
Lessig, which seeks to overturn a 1998 law that extended copyright term
limits by 20 years. Major copyright holders such as record labels,
publishers and movie studios have sought to have copyright terms extended;
the Supreme Court will weigh their wishes against the public's interest to
have unbridled access to the works. "Before the Internet, a creator's
ability to put new works out there all depended on commercial
publications, because only they could afford the cost," Lessig told The
New York Times. "But at this stage, it becomes important to establish the
principle that the public domain is here and meant to be perpetually fed
by works passing into it after a limited copyright protection."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/20/national/20MEDI.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/20/national/20RIGH.html
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50527,00.html
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174622.html 
http://www.ce.org/newsroom/newsloader.asp?newsfile=8879
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o Copyright Office Delivers Webcasting Royalty Rate Proposal

Washington, D.C. -- The U.S. Copyright Office on Wednesday delivered its
long-awaited recommendations for royalty rates that webcasters will have
to pay to record labels and artists in order to stream music on the
Internet. The proposed rates favor recording companies, which had hoped
for a rate of $0.004 per listener per song; the Copyright Office has
proposed a fee of $0.0014 per listener per song. Webcasters had hoped that
the rate would be about one-thirtieth of the rate proposed by the
recording industry. Both webcasters and traditional commercial and
non-commercial radio stations will have to pay the royalties. Comments on
the Copyright Office's proposed rates are due by March 11. The rates, once
finalized, will be retroactive to 1998, meaning both radio stations
simulcasting their signals and Internet-only webcasters will have to pay a
lump sum for all of the music they have streamed online since then.
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/carp/webcasting_rates.html
http://www.radiohorizon.com/index.php3?fcn=displayarticle&id=2424
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-840539.html?tag=cd_mh
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o Napster Going Back to Court As Month-Long Suspension of Lawsuit Expires

Redwood City, Calif. -- A court-ordered month-long break in the recording
industry's infringement suits against Napster -- designed so that the two
parties could have a chance to reach a settlement -- expired on Sunday,
meaning the two sides will soon be back in court. "Given the current state
of settlement negotiations, it didn't make sense for the record companies
to agree to Napster's request to keep the litigation on hold," RIAA
general counsel Cary Sherman told CNET. Napster said it will continue
settlement talks with the labels despite resuming the litigation. Before
the break, the judge in the case was about to allow Napster to investigate
the record labels' bookkeeping with regard to which copyrights they
actually own, as well as whether or not the labels have abused their
copyrights, which would nullify them and exempt Napster from liability.
The next stage in the trial will be a hearing for summary judgment for the
labels, which if issued would essentially find Napster guilty without the
case having gone to trial.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-840756.html
_____________________________________________

o MGM Tests Internet Video-On-Demand With CinemaNow

Marina del Rey, Calif. -- CinemaNow, a provider of Internet-based
video-on-demand that is majority-owned by Lions Gate Films, announced on
Wednesday that it has signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios
that will let MGM test the company's video-on-demand service with several
of its current films. MGM will make "What's the Worst That Could Happen?,"
starring Danny DeVito and Martin Lawrence and, "The Man In The Iron Mask,"
starring Leonardo di Caprio, available for streaming and download from
CinemaNow.com. As part of the agreement, CinemaNow will show the films at
various price points and collect data regarding purchasing patterns of the
films for MGM.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020220/200270_1.html
http://www.cinemanow.com
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Adaptec has turned out an impressive array of connectivity products to
help users hook up with the newest technologies. USB 2.0 devices like MP3
players, CD-Rs and scanners move data, voice and video 40 times faster
than standard USB. And Adaptec has a full line of USB 2.0 cards and hubs
for desktops and notebooks to keep even the most gadget-hungry techies
fully satisfied. See the full family of Adaptec connectivity products:

http://www.digitalmediawire.com/adaptec.html

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Jupiter's 9th Annual Media Forum: The Death of Free Content?
March 18 - 19, 2002: New York, New York

Strategies for Exploiting Media Assets Online

Join Jupiter Analysts and speakers from The New York Times, Wall Street
Journal, Cahners, Cox Interactive, ESPN.com, ABCNews.com, People.com, E!
Online, BBC World Service and over 20 other companies for 2 days of data,
discussion and debate on how media companies should work around the
downy-soft ad market through new revenue streams and cost-saving
strategies.

To register: http://www.jmm.com/mediaforum
Customer Service: eventsreg@jmm.com

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o Briefly Noted:

(Horsham, Pa.) Music Choice, a provider of programmed digital audio
channels for digital TV providers, announced on Wednesday that Alliance
Entertainment will provide CD distribution and fulfillment services for
Music Choice's interactive channels. The channels, available to DirecTV
viewers, will let them buy CDs directly from their televisions.
http://www.musicchoice.com
http://www.aent.com

(Reston, Va.) Wireless network operator Nextel on Wednesday announced the
launch of a live streaming audio news service for its subscribers.
Tennessee-based XSVoice will provide audio streaming technology for the
service, which will give Nextel subscribers access to live and on-demand
audio feeds from the Associated Press, Sporting News Radio, Radiostorm and
World Radio Network.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020219/192796_1.html
http://www.xsvoice.com
http://www.nextel.com

(Cannes, France) Philips on Wednesday announced its Platform4, a streaming
media solution for operators of GPRS and 3G wireless networks. The service
will provide storage, compression, delivery and playback technology for
high quality audio, video and graphics-heavy games sent over wireless
networks, and is based on open standards including 3GPP and ISO-compliant
MPEG-4.
http://www.philips.com/InformationCenter/Global/FPressRelease.asp?lArticleId=1898&lNodeId=13

(San Francisco) Global telecommunications provider Cable and Wireless
announced on Wednesday that it will provide hosting and delivery services
for Hong Kong-based game developer En-Tranz's online game service.
En-Tranz will launch a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game
called "Shadowbane" later this year in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as
additional online games in the future.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020220/200159_1.html
http://www.en-tranz.com
http://www.cw.com

(Santa Clara, Calif.) Zoran Corporation, a developer of compression
technology used in consumer electronics devices, said on Wednesday that it
has partnered with Principal Solutions to make TV Guardian a feature on
Sanyo's new line of DVD players. TV Guardian allows parents to select
preprogrammed alternative language choices on DVDs to replace "adult
language" with wording more appropriate for children. The technology
monitors the closed-captioning on DVDs and mutes the audio when swear
words appear, adding a different phrase that appears on-screen as a
caption.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020220/sfw057_1.html
http://www.zoran.com
http://www.tvguardian.com

(Santa Ana, Calif.) SRS Labs, a provider of audio and voice technologies,
said on Wednesday that Sharp has licensed its technology that enhances the
sound of MP3-compressed audio for use in its cell phones. Santa Ana-based
SRS Labs' technology will be used in Sharp's J-SH51, a phone with added
MP3 playback capability manufactured for Japanese wireless network
operator J-Phone.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020220/law043_1.html
http://www.srslabs.com
http://www.j-phone.com/h-e/index.html

(Redwood City, Calif.) Openwave Systems, a developer of open IP-based
communication infrastructure software, said on Wednesday that it has
partnered with wireless game technology firm In-Fusio. Redwood City-based
Openwave will integrate France-based In-Fusio's wireless games engine into
its mobile browser, enabling billable, over-the-air downloads of games to
cell phones and wireless devices.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020220/sfw025_1.html
http://www.openwave.com
http://www.in-fusio.com 

(Newport Beach, Calif.) Kanakaris Wireless announced on Wednesday that it
has added the ability to download movies from its CinemaPop website. The
site previously only offered streaming of films. Users can now download
movies in Microsoft's Windows Media format for between $1.99 and $2.99.
The film will "time-out" and become unavailable on the user's computer
after a period of two days.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020220/200376_1.html
http://www.cinemapop.com

(Sunnyvale, Calif.) Macrovision, a developer of video copy-protection
technology, said on Wednesday that DreamWorks SKG has signed a multi-year
contract to copy protect its DVDs and videocassettes sold throughout the
world using Macrovision technology. Sunnyvale-based Macrovision says its
technology is used on over 75 percent of all DVDs distributed by most
MPAA-affiliated studios, as well as corporate, educational and special
interest rights owners.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020220/200173_1.html
http://www.macrovision.com
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USB connections with some get up and go.

With Adaptec's USB2Connect for Notebooks, you can take advantage of the
40x faster speeds of USB 2.0 peripherals anywhere your notebook computer
is -- home, office, or on the road.

http://www.digitalmediawire.com/adaptec.html

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>DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE PANEL DISCUSSION SERIES:
"Interactive Games on the Internet: Recent Developments and New Business
Opportunities"

LOS ANGELES: Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2002, Four Seasons Hotel, Beverly Hills

Confirmed panelists include Tracy Fullerton, President, Spiderdance; Seth
Gerson, Co-Founder, YaYa; Victor Hwang, COO, LARTA; Chris Kantrowitz,
Co-Founder, The Groove Alliance and President, 7ate9 Productions; Mark
Kapczynski, Principal Consultant, Microsoft; and Mark Surfas, Founder,
Chairman and CEO, GameSpy.

For more information and to register for the Los Angeles event:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/LAgames2.html

SAN FRANCISCO: Tuesday, March 12, 2002, The City Club of San Francisco

Confirmed panelists include Greg Kasavin, Executive Editor, GameSpot; Chad
Richard, CEO, NoizePlay; Mark Surfas, Founder, Chairman and CEO, GameSpy;
and John Welch, VP of Games and Product Development, AtomShockwave.

For more information and to register for the San Francisco event:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/SFgames2.html

NEW YORK: Thursday, March 14, 2002, The Cornell Club of New York City

Confirmed panelists include Billy Pidgeon, Digital Media Analyst; Greg
Costikyan, Founder and Chief Design Officer, Unplugged Games; Doug
Lowenstein, President, Interactive Digital Software Association; and
Joseph Varet, VP of Business Development and Strategy, The Groove
Alliance.

For more information and to register for the New York event:
http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=20271&Referrer_id=4074

Sponsorships and Inquiries: Ned Sherman at 323/464.0793
Or esherman@digitalmediawire.com
______________________

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Copyright 2002 Digital Media Wire