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Past Editions

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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- March 7, 2001
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To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com 

o EMusic Sues Napster, Asks for Reinstatement of Blocked Users
o Yahoo Searches for New CEO as Koogle Steps Down
o NARAS Sues Napster, Says Live Grammy Performances Infringe Copyrights
o Idealab Closing Silicon Valley Operations
o Video Game Publisher Ubi Soft Acquires Learning Company's Games Unit
> Digital Media Wire - NYC & DC Interactive Games Panels
> Digital Media Wire Networkin' Hoedown, Mar. 12 - SXSW, Austin, Texas
o Briefly Noted: "qrpff," Qualcomm - Thomson Multimedia, Sekani -
Paramount Pictures, Comedy Central - Microsoft TV, WildTangent, MSNBC.com,
Boeing Satellite Systems, Net4Music - Boosey & Hawkes
_____________________________________________

> Job Postings: Account Executive, Asst. Marketing Mgr./Internet, Music Titler

> Events/Services: "Artesia Digital Asset Management Seminar,"
"Cannes Interactive Forum"

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 
_____________________________________________

o EMusic Sues Napster, Asks for Reinstatement of Blocked Users

Redwood City, Calif. -- Downloadable music retailer EMusic.com has sued
Napster for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement, as well as
for unfair competition. The company is also asking Napster to reinstate
access to users who were blocked from the service for sharing EMusic
songs. The company said that Napster previously told it that blocking
users was the only method available to prevent EMusic songs from being
traded; in light of Napster's new song-blocking filters, it is asking for
users it submitted to Napster to be reinstated. "For over six months,
Napster Inc. has flatly rejected our requests to filter out and
effectively block EMusic tracks from being traded on their system without
our permission," said Gene Hoffman, CEO of EMusic. "Napster has stated
clearly to us and to the courts that they believed such a system was
technically impossible. In light of this position, Napster's ability to
quickly implement such a filtering system over this past weekend shows the
company's true motive -- to unfairly build a business upon the copyrighted
works of others." The company's "unfair competition" complaint alleges
that under the California Business and Professions Code, Napster has
caused EMusic "loss of customers, lost profits, dilution of its goodwill,
decrease in market capitalization and injury to its reputation." EMusic is
seeking damages on 30,000 songs in the suit, which could yield an award of
$4.5 billion if granted the maximum $150,000 per infringement. The unfair
competition claim could also bring damages of $2,500 per incident.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010307/sfw009.html 
http://www.emusic.com/napster/emusiccomplaint.pdf 
_____________________________________________

o Yahoo Searches for New CEO as Koogle Steps Down

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Yahoo announced on Wednesday that CEO Tim Koogle is
stepping down from the position, and that the company has begun a search
for a new chief executive. Koogle will remain chairman of the company, and
will continue to serve as CEO until a replacement is found. The company
also issued a profit warning and announced a repurchase program for $500
million of its stock. Yahoo now projects its first quarter earnings for
2001 to be $170 to $180 million, rather than its earlier projection of
$220 to $240 million. "All businesses in the United States are facing
challenging economic conditions that have weakened further in recent
weeks, and as consumer confidence and spending has deteriorated, a broad
range of customers have delayed their spending across all media formats
until their economic outlook improves," said Koogle. Speculation on the
announcement prompted the Nasdaq to halt trading of the company's stock
Wednesday morning. 
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010307/0524.html 
_____________________________________________

o NARAS Sues Napster; Says Live Grammy Performances Infringe Copyrights

San Francisco -- Joining EMusic and likely many others to come, The
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) has sued Napster
for copyright infringement related to live performances at the Grammy
Awards posted on the service, the Associated Press reported. "Within hours
of the televised broadcast, the sound recordings of live performances at
the Grammy Awards were made available by Napster for downloading and
copying," the suit says. In particular, the organization is looking to
profit from a possible commercial release of the duet featuring rapper
Eminem and openly-gay singer Elton John. "We remixed that song, and were
looking to put it out to the public with some of the proceeds going to the
recording academy charities," said NARAS president Michael Greene.
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/breaking/docs/AA1042.htm# 
http://www.grammy.com 
_____________________________________________

o Idealab Closing Silicon Valley Operations

Pasadena, Calif. -- Idealab, the Internet company incubator that launched
companies including domain name registrar dot-TV and the now-defunct
entertainment site Z.com, is winding down its Silicon Valley operations
and will not launch any new companies there, the Wall Street Journal
reported on Wednesday. The company will continue to support the three
companies operating out of its Palo Alto offices; Idealab also has offices
in London, New York, Boston and Pasadena. Online toys retailer eToys,
another Idealab company, filed this week for Chapter 11 and will shut down
its website. Idealab withdrew plans for an initial public offering in
October.
http://www.idealab.com 
_____________________________________________

o Video Game Publisher Ubi Soft Acquires Learning Company's Games Unit

Paris -- Ubi Soft, a publisher and developer of interactive entertainment,
announced on Wednesday that it will acquire the entertainment division of
The Learning Company. France-based Ubi Soft said it will maintain the
Learning Company unit's California-based operations and integrate them
into its own. The acquisition gives Ubi Soft the right to publish the next
two episodes of the popular game "Myst," along with about 90 other games.
http://usa.ubisoft.com/corp/newscenter_pr.php?prdate=030701 
http://www.learningco.com/category.asp?cid=521&RCID=1&L=1 
_____________________________________________

> Digital Media Wire - NYC & DC Interactive Games Panels

New York City -- "Interactive Games on the Internet"
MODERATOR:
-Billy Pidgeon, Analyst, Jupiter Research

FEATURED SPEAKERS:
-Greg Costikyan, Founder & Chief Design Officer, Unplugged Games
-Frank Lantz, Sr. Game Designer, gameLab
-Joseph Varet, VP BizDev & Strategy, The Groove Alliance
*Additional panelists TBA.

Date: Wednesday, March 28th, 2001
For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/NYCgames.html 

------------

Washington, D.C. -- "Interactive Games on the Internet"
FEATURED SPEAKERS:
-Phillip Campbell, Chief Creative Director, Quantic Dream
-Larry Cotter, CEO, Sandbox.com
-David Levine, CEO, Butterfly.net
*Additional panelists TBA.

Date: Thursday, April 5th, 2001
For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/DCgames.html 
_____________________________________________

> Digital Media Wire Networkin' Hoedown, Mar. 12 - SXSW, Austin, Texas

If you're a South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival badgeholder, stop by the
landmark Stubb's BBQ to network and hear live music from The Damnations
TX. Free pint glass (with beer inside!) for the first lucky 500 thru the
door.
Sponsored by: Microsoft Technology Center/Austin.
For more information: michael@digitalmediawire.com 
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/dmw_event1.html 
_____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(Cambridge, Mass.) Two MIT programmers have written a program that can
circumvent the security technology placed on DVDs in seven lines of code
small enough to print out on a business card, Wired News reported on
Wednesday. The program -- "qrpff" -- is an abbreviated version of the
DeCSS code over which the Motion Picture Association of America sued
hacker magazine 2600. "I think there's some value in demonstrating how
simple these things really are and how preposterous it is to try to
restrict their distribution," said MIT student and "qrpff" co-creator
Keith Winstein. "I'm showing the humor in trying to call these seven lines
on a piece of paper a device."
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,42259,00.html 

(San Diego) Wireless technology developer Qualcomm said on Wednesday that
it has licensed the MP3 format from Thomson Multimedia, the licensing
agent for German developer Fraunhofer -- which originally patented the MP3
file format -- to incorporate into its wireless device software. Terms of
the multiyear agreement were not disclosed. San Diego-based Qualcomm will
integrate MP3s into its CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) wireless
technology.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010307/hsw007.html 
http://www.qualcomm.com 
http://www.thomson-multimedia.com 

(New York) Sekani, a provider of digital asset management, said on
Wednesday that it will digitize and archive Paramount Pictures' library of
moving images. New York-based Sekani will also represent the Paramount
Pictures Stock Footage Library in sales of the footage to advertising and
media companies. The library consists of many aging black-and-white films
from 1927 to the present, which will be preserved in digital form.
http://www.sekani.com 
http://www.paramount.com 

(New York) Cable network Comedy Central announced on Wednesday that it has
partnered with Microsoft TV to develop interactive television programming.
The deal gives the producers of shows -- including "South Park" --
Microsoft's developer tools so that it can create and test enhanced TV
programming for use with Motorola set-top boxes.
http://www.comedycentral.com 

(Redmond, Wash.) WildTangent, a provider of game software development
tools, said on Wednesday that it will add support for multiplayer game
technology to its free software kit. The multiplayer capabilities will let
game developers create games in the Java programming language that can be
played against other users on the Internet. Companies including Mattel and
Sony Online Entertainment -- creator of the popular multiplayer game
EverQuest -- said that they will use the software from Washington-based
WildTangent.
http://www.wildtangent.com 

(New York) News site MSNBC.com on Wednesday launched a service that lets
any website owner pull headlines and place them on their own sites free of
charge. Users take code from the MSNBC site and add it to the code on
their site; the code then automatically places headlines onto the site,
and regularly updates the content. Users that click on the headlines will
be taken to the corresponding pages on MSNBC.com. "[This service] allows
website owners to easily present breaking news headlines to their users,"
said John Nicol, general manager of MSNBC.com.
http://www.newsstand.msnbc.com 

(Los Angeles) Boeing Satellite Systems announced on Wednesday that it will
provide technology for the first theatrical premiere of a film to be
beamed via satellite to a theater for Dimension Films' upcoming release,
"Spy Kids." The film's premiere will be held as a benefit for the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation and Children's Diabetes Center at UCLA at
Disney's California Adventure theme park on March 18. Boeing first tested
the digital film satellite technology when it beamed Miramax's "Bounce" to
a theater in Times Square.
http://216.148.241.170/cinema/ 

(Minneapolis) Online sheet music publisher Net4Music announced on
Wednesday a ten-year agreement to distribute the catalog of international
sheet music publisher Boosey & Hawkes. Included will be works from
Stravinsky, Copland, Bernstein and Steve Reich. The company said it will
also explore using Minneapolis-based Net4Music's accompaniment teaching
software.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010307/2005.html 
http://www.net4music.com 
http://www.boosey.com 

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

> World Wrestling Federation, Account Executive - New York City

Internet advertising sales candidates will possess strong entrepreneurial
work habits, at least two plus years media sales experience (including at
least one year selling ".com" advertising), and have established
advertising contacts at both the advertiser direct and agency level. Send
resumes to:
resume@wwfent.com 
http://www.wwf.com 
______________________

> Forbes Magazine, Asst. Marketing Mgr./Internet - New York City

Opportunity to work on Forbes Magazinešs Internet subscription programs.
You'll have reporting & analysis responsibilities and assist in creating
internet promotions. Proficiency in Excel required. Strong analytical,
organizational and planning skills, plus 6+ months consumer marketing
preferred. Send resumes to:
jobs@forbes.com 
http://www.forbes.com 
______________________

> BuzzHits, Inc., Music Titler - San Francisco

BuzzHits is a technology & services provider that delivers mobile impulse
response solutions for advertising purposes. Quickly & accurately identify
title and artist of songs played on Country or R&B/Oldies format. Ability
to "Name the Tune" in 5 notes or less - 100% accuracy. 2 years radio, DJ
and/or music background preferred. Send resumes to jobs@buzzhits.com
http://www.buzzhits.com 

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

> Artesia, Digital Asset Management Seminar -- SF, LA, Atlanta, NY, DC

Did you know that the average ROI for an enterprise Digital Asset
Management solution is between 9 and 18 months? Artesia Technologies
invites you to a free seminar on digital asset management. Our discussion
will include up-to-the-minute analysis presented for the first time and
speakers from The GartnerGroup, analyst Frank Gilbane and PwC. San Fran
on 3/8, LA on 3/9, Atlanta on 3/13, New York City on 3/14, and DC on 3/16.
Send inquiries to personalseminar@artesia.com 
To register go to http://www.artesia.com/seminar/index1.html 
______________________

> Cannes Interactive Forum, May 9-19, 2001 - Cannes, France

MITIC 2001, an official part of the Cannes Film Festival, introduces
THE CANNES INTERACTIVE FORUM, a high-profile cost-effective way to
demonstrate computer-based technologies such as web content, production
software, streaming systems and more to entertainment industry elite.
Deadline to register is April 1.
rweiner@ddapr.com
/ 323.692.2330.
http://www.mediatekla.com
______________________

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