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March 9, 2004 -- About Us | Advertise | Events | Publications | Subscribe

Main Stories
o EU Copyright Directive Passes; Late Amendment Could Protect File-Sharing
o RealNetworks Sues Major League Baseball Over Streaming Formats
o Judge Rules RIAA Can't Consolidate "John Doe" Suits Against File-Swappers
o Kodak Acquires 2 Digital Printing Firms; Sues Sony for Patent Infringement
o MCG Capital Acquires Media Trade Publisher Kagan World Media


 > DMW Announcements
 --DMW Events
   -Games & Mobile Forum - Early-Bird Registrations

 > Featured Advertisement:
 --Digital Media Law Report
 --PricewaterhouseCoopers' Entertainment and Media Outlook
 

o Briefly Noted: SonyEricsson - Ubisoft's "Tom Clancy Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow," Activated Content - Phonofile Denmark, Encore HD, BIAP Systems - Time Warner Cable, Certicom - Regal Entertainment Group, Electronic Arts - "MVP Baseball 2004," Digital Extremes - Groove Games - "Pariah," Bam Entertainment - "Starsky & Hutch," ACON4 Worldwide Gaming Event, Got Game Entertainment, Master P - double CD/full-length DVD movie

 
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--Research Manager
--Business Development Associate - Silver Spring, MD 
--
Sales and Marketing Professionals  
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--
General Counsel in Search of a Two Great Companies
--Advertising Services CFO
--PricewaterhouseCoopers' Entertainment and Media Outlook
--Reach Federal Contractors Selling Technologies for Homeland Security
--IT Perm and Contract Placement Services

 


o EU Copyright Directive Passes; Late Amendment Could Protect File-Sharing

Brussels -- The European Parliament has voted to pass the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, an anti-piracy law covering media and other goods that will apply to all countries in the European Union. The directive originally would have included clauses that allowed copyright holders to target individual file-swappers with infringement claims, much like the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. However, a late amendment added to the law could restrict civil lawsuits to large-scale commercial counterfeiters and pirates of CDs and movies, protecting individuals who download music and other media "in good faith" for their own personal use. Civil liberties groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that even with the late amendment, the law as passed could still leave individual file-swappers open to litigation from copyright holders. Following final approval of the Enforcement Directive by EU minister, member states will have 18 months to implement their own versions of the laws.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?A32C21AA7
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3545839.stm 
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5171833.html
http://www.eff.org/news/breaking/archives/2004_03.php#001256 
_____________________________________________

o RealNetworks Sues Major League Baseball Over Streaming Formats

Seattle -- RealNetworks announced on Tuesday that it has filed suit against the new media division of Major League Baseball (MLB), over a contract that provides for baseball broadcasts to be delivered over the Internet in RealNetworks' media format. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to compel MLB.com to stream games in RealNetworks' format, as laid out in a February 2004 contract with Major League Baseball Advanced Media. The two companies have worked together since 2001, when MLB signed a three-year, $20 million deal to use RealNetworks technology to power delivery of all of its audio and video feeds of baseball games. The two companies failed to renew that larger contract recently, and MLB has since been seeking a new partner for delivering its games online.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040309/sftu100_1.html 
http://news.com.com/2100-1023_3-5171852.html
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q5FC11AA7
http://www.realnetworks.com
http://www.mlb.com
_____________________________________________

o Judge Rules RIAA Can't Consolidate "John Doe" Suits Against File-Swappers

Philadelphia -- A federal judge on Friday put a kink in one of the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) legal campaigns against alleged file-swappers when he ruled the RIAA must file separate "John Doe" lawsuits against 203 individual file-swappers instead of grouping them all into a single suit. The record industry was forced to begin filing "John Doe" lawsuits after a federal judge ruled in December its previous expedited subpoena process for revealing the names of alleged infringers from their Internet service providers was illegal. On Friday, Judge Clarence Newcomer of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania allowed a single suit to be filed, against "John Doe" #1, for whom the RIAA provided additional details. The RIAA must now file separate suits against the remaining 202 John Doe defendants -- all of whom are Comcast Internet subscribers -- and pay additional filing fees that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) estimated to total $30,000.
http://eff.org/IP/P2P/20040305_eff_pr.php
____________________________________________

o Kodak Acquires 2 Digital Printing Firms; Sues Sony for Patent Infringement Rochester, N.Y. -- Photo giant Eastman Kodak stepped up its move into the digital market yesterday when it acquired two digital printing companies owned by the German firm Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG for a combined $150 million. The two companies, NexPress Solutions and Heidelberg Digital, manufacture digital color and black-and-white printers. Separately, Kodak announced it has filed patent infringement claims against rival camera maker Sony, alleging the company is infringing on 10 of its patents covering digital photography technology. The suit seeks an injunction against further sale of the allegedly infringing products and unspecified monetary damages. "We have attempted to resolve the matter with Sony for almost three years, and the discussion between us have not led to a suitable licensing agreement," Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner told Reuters. Sony said it had not yet seen the suit and had no comment.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040308/75096_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/040309/tech_kodak_sony_2.html
____________________________________________

o MCG Capital Acquires Media Trade Publisher Kagan World Media

Arlington, Va. -- MCG Capital Corporation announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Kagan World Media, a media and entertainment research firm based in Carmel, Calif. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. MCG purchased the assets from Primedia, which acquired the company from founder Paul Kagan in 2000. Kagan publishes newsletters and organizes conferences covering the cable, broadcast, home video, motion picture, newspaper and wireless industries. "We had a broad overlap in the industries that we cover, and we share a similar approach to financial research," said MCG Capital CEO Bryan Mitchell. "Combining forces with Kagan was a natural extension of our research arm and increases our research capabilities by an order of magnitude." The company will now be known as Kagan Research.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040309/dctu022_1.html 
http://www.kagan.com 
http://www.mcgcapital.com 

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 > DMW Events:



2nd
Annual
GAMES & MOBILE FORUM

April 15
, 2004  |  New York City
www.gamesandmobile.com

Overview
Games & Mobile Forum is 1-day executive forum focused on business and technology developments impacting games and mobile entertainment.  In 2003, leading executives from entertainment and technology companies including, Yahoo! Games, AOL Games, Atari,  Acclaim, Warner Bros. Online, AtomShockwave, CNET, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), The Endeavor Agency, Mythic Entertainment and Digital Bridges participated in a series of panels on topics, including "Mobile Games: The Coming Wireless Revolution", "Developing Games Based on Film, Television & Music Properties and Visa-Versa"", and "Advergames: Recent Developments & Opportunities".

REGISTRATION
Early Bird Special: $ 195 (until March 12)
Pre-Registration: $ 295 (until April 9)
Registration: $ 395 (after April 9)

Online :  http://kb.digitalmediawire.com/register.php?eventid=1060 
Phone: 323-464-0793

To submit speakers for the 2004 conference, please send a bio and photo (optional) to Tinzar Than, VP, Marketing & Events, Digital Media Wire, Inc. at tinzar@digitalmediawire.com.


Past Events | Sponsorship Materials | Partners & Clients
 

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> Featured Advertisement: 

Digital Media Law Report
New Featured Section - Volume 1 - 2004

We are pleased to announce that we have added a "Featured Section" to Digital Media Law & Policy Report. This month's featured coverage includes reports on the oral arguments held before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in MGM v. Grokster and a "Post-Conference Report" from MidemNet 2004. We will use this section to provide in depth coverage of certain cases, events and policy developments each month. Subscriptions - Order

Available Now - Volume 1 - 2004 Report - 30 pages - Order



 

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o Briefly Noted:

(Research Triangle Park, N.C.) Wireless developer Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications announced on Tuesday an in-game product promotion with video game developer Ubisoft Entertainment that will see two of its products appear in Ubisoft's "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow." As part of the deal, Sony Ericsson's new P900 smart phone and T637 camera phone will figure into the plot of the video game. A separate deal between Sony Ericsson and mobile game publisher Gameloft will enable a wireless version of the game to be played on the camera phone as well.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040309/95549_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040309/95175_1.html 
http://www.sonyericsson.com 
http://www.gameloft.com 
http://www.ubisoft.com

(Bellevue, Wash.) Activated Content announced on Tuesday that a Danish digital music download service will use its audio watermarking technology to mark downloaded music files with a persistent identity to enable the enforcement of copyright laws. The Phonofile Denmark service was created by a group of Danish rights owners and will launch this month. It plans to eventually offer up to 500,000 tracks from both Danish and international artists, offering distribution via MP3 files that include watermarks, Windows Media files with digital rights management, or both.
http://www.activatedcontent.com 
http://www.phonofile.dk

(Los Angeles) Cable TV network Starz Encore Group said on Tuesday that it will launch its latest HDTV channel, Encore HD, on March 22. The channel will initially be available on Cablevision's Voom HDTV service, and will be offered via PanAmSat's satellite network.
http://www.starzencore.com

(Plano, Texas) BIAP Systems, a provider of interactive TV software, said on Tuesday that it has signed a multi-year license and distribution agreement with Time Warner Cable. The cable TV operator will deploy Texas-based BIAP's localization and smart aggregation tool that automatically and continuously retrieves, updates and delivers viewer-customized data such as sports scores and stock portfolios.
http://www.biap.com

(Mississauga, Ontario) Cryptography developer Certicom said on Tuesday that Regal Entertainment Group will deploy its security technology to protect films delivered via satellite on Regal's digital cinema system.
http://www.regalcinemedia.com 
http://www.certicom.com

(Redwood City, Calif.) Game developer Electronic Arts on Tuesday released its "MVP Baseball 2004" title for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and the PC. Developed by the company's EA Canada studio, the game for the first time lets players control all aspects of Class AA and AAA farm teams in addition to the parent MLB clubs, and features online play via the Network Adaptor for PlayStation 2.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040309/95333_1.html 
http://www.mvpbaseball2004.com

(Toronto) Independent game developer Digital Extremes ("Unreal") said on Tuesday that Toronto-based publisher Groove Games has signed an agreement to publish its new title "Pariah" for Xbox and the PC. The title has been in development for two years; additional details will be released at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May.
http://www.digitalextremes.com 
http://www.groovegames.com 
http://www.pariahgame.com

(San Jose, Calif.) Video game developer Bam Entertainment announced on Tuesday that it will serve as North American distributor for the Empire Interactive-developed title for Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance based on Sony Pictures' "Starsky and Hutch" movie. The game is slated for release later this month.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040309/sftu051_1.html
http://us.empireinteractive.com 
http://www.bam4fun.com

(Fountain Valley, Calif.) Memory products maker Kingston Technology said on Tuesday it will sponsor the ACON4 Worldwide Gaming Event, a video game tournament spread across 19 countries and territories in a total of 50 cities. Entrants will compete to advance to the finals in June in Shanghai, China, where they will challenge one another's skills in Blizzard Entertainment's "Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne."
http://www.kingston.com 
http://www.abitgamer.com

(Weston, Conn.) Game developer Got Game Entertainment said on Tuesday that it shipped its "A Quiet Weekend in Capri" title for PC to retailers this week. http://www.gotgameentertainment.com

(New York) Koch Records hip-hop artist Master P announced on Tuesday he will distribute a feature length, straight-to-DVD movie along with his double CD album "Good Side/Bad Side," due in stores on March 23. The film, billed as a "gritty dramedy," is executive produced and co-directed by Master P and stars Master P and Lil Romeo. Master P's first straight-to-video release, "I'm Bout It," which he produced, wrote, directed and starred in, sold nearly 500,000 copies in its first week of release in 1997.
http://www.kochentertainment.com 
http://www.nolimitrecords.com

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Digital Media Wire, Inc. is a news organization, publisher and events company serving the digital media industry since May 2000. Our daily newsletter delivers original briefings on business, legal and financial developments shaping digital media and read by over 30,000 executives and professionals. To subscribe for free, please click here.

Digital Media Wire, Inc. is part of the Tech Wire Media Group, an international network of publications that includes Digital Media Law Report, Potomac Tech Wire, New England Tech Wire, Southeast Tech Wire, Bay Area Tech Wire, Tri-state Tech Wire and European Tech Wire. The network reaches more than 70,000 individuals from over 70 countries each business day.

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