archives

o Sen. Hollings Introduces Bill for Copy-Protection in Consumer Electronics
o Liberate Countersues OpenTV in Interactive TV Patent Dispute
o Report: Movie Trailers Drawing Visitors to Websites
o Texas Man Faces Fines, Jail Time for Selling CDs of Russell Crowe's Band
o Google Restores Some Anti-Scientology Web Pages; Others Remain Blocked
o Briefly Noted: Two Way TV (US) - Game Show Network, Game Developers
Choice Awards, NCSoft - "Lineage II," Muze - Jungle.com, Sony MicroMV,
Sony PlayStation 3
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o Sen. Hollings Introduces Bill for Copy-Protection in Consumer Electronics

Washington -- After much talk about a draft of the bill and several Senate
hearings on the issue, Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) has introduced new
legislation called the "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television
Promotion Act" (CBDTPA), which if enacted would ban the sale of consumer
electronics devices that are not equipped with government-approved
copy-protection technology. The law would apply to PCs, televisions,
personal video recorders, MP3 players and other devices through which
copyrighted digital media can pass. Co-sponsoring the bill were five
senators, including California's Diane Feinstein (D-Ca.). The law would
give entertainment and technology firms one year to negotiate a
marketplace compromise, after which time the Federal Communications
Commission would intervene and recommend its own copy-protection scheme.
The legislation was praised by both the movie and music industries and
derided by Silicon Valley. "If [the CBDTPA] were enacted it could stand in
the way of consumers enjoying the benefits of innovation by having the
government make decisions that are best left to the marketplace,"
Information Technology Industry Council president Rhett Dawson told Wired
News.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquerytr/D?d107:11:./temp/~bdz4R4::
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51245,00.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-866337.html?tag=cd_mh
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175390.html
http://www.digitalconsumer.org/cbdtpa/
_____________________________________________

o Liberate Countersues OpenTV in Interactive TV Patent Dispute

San Carlos, Calif. -- Liberate Technologies, a developer of operating
system software for set-top boxes used to deliver interactive television,
announced that it has countersued rival OpenTV, alleging the company
infringes on four of its patents. OpenTV previously sued Liberate on Feb.
7, claiming the company is infringing on two patents it holds. In its
countersuit, San Carlos-based Liberate is seeking both unspecified
monetary damages and an injunction against the distribution of Mountain
View-based OpenTV's software. "While we have previously not asserted our
patent portfolio against other companies, we view this countersuit as a
measured and necessary response to OpenTV's resort to litigation," said
Kent Walker, Liberate's senior vice president for corporate and legal
affairs. OpenTV responded to the countersuit in a statement. "We remain
confident in the strength of our original patent infringement lawsuit
filed against Liberate," said OpenTV general counsel Jesse Berg, adding,
"We have no reason to believe that OpenTV infringes the patents cited."
Neither of the two cases has yet been set for trial.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020321/sfth077_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020321/212616_1.html
http://www.liberate.com
http://www.opentv.com
_____________________________________________

o Report: Movie Trailers Drawing Visitors to Websites

New York -- Websites featuring trailers for anticipated spring movie
releases are drawing heavy traffic from Web surfers, according to traffic
figures released this week by Internet audience measurement firm
Nielsen/NetRatings. During the week ended March 17, traffic spiked 97
percent at StarWars.com as users logged on to view the trailer for
"Episode II: Attack of the Clones." SonyPictures.com saw a 75 percent
increase in traffic when users came seeking information on both the
recently released "Resident Evil" and the studio's upcoming "Spider-Man."
Finally, ET20.com saw 73 percent more users who visited to get information
on the upcoming re-release of "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial." "Movie trailer
distribution has become an online commodity for the entertainment
industry," said NetRatings senior analyst Jarvis Mak.
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_020322.pdf
_____________________________________________

o Texas Man Faces Fines, Jail Time for Selling CDs of Russell Crowe's Band

San Francisco -- The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern
District of California said this week that Austin, Texas resident Billy
Joe Acosta has pleaded guilty to charges of copyright infringement for
selling live recordings of a performance by actor Russell Crowe's band,
Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts. Acosta admitted to having sold at least 10
copies of the unauthorized live recording on Internet auction sites EBay
and Yahoo Auctions. Acosta faces punishment in the form of fines of up to
$100,000 and up to one year in prison. He will be sentenced on June 11.
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can/press/html/2002_03_21_acosta.html
_____________________________________________

o Google Restores Some Anti-Scientology Web Pages; Others Remain Blocked

Mountain View, Calif. -- Search engine provider Google has restored links
to some Web pages critical of the Church of Scientology, one day after
removing them as a result legal threats from the Church under the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Reuters reported. Other pages referred to
by the Church as containing unauthorized copyrighted content, however,
remain blocked from Google's search results. A posting from
Politechbot.com reports that pages other than www.xenu.net -- the homepage
of one of the sites targeted by the Church -- that reside on the site and
were included in the Church's complaint to Google still do not come up
when a user searches on Google.
http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,51257,FF.html 
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03288.html
_____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(Los Angeles) Two Way TV (US), a developer of games for interactive
television, said that it has partnered with cable TV network Game Show
Network to create a range of virtual game channels. The channels will
feature a mix of games based on Game Show Network original and classic TV
game shows as well as Two Way TV (US) original stand-alone games. The
channels will be compatible with interactive TV middleware made by
companies including Wink, Liberate, OpenTV, Microsoft TV and Sony
Electronics.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020321/lath057_1.html
http://www.twowaytv.com
http://www.gameshownetwork.com

(San Jose, Calif.) The International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
announced the recipients of the 2nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards
on Thursday night from the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif.
The award for "Game of the Year" went to DMA Design/Rockstar Games for
"Grand Theft Auto III;" Bohemia Interactive Studio won the title of
"Rookie Studio of the Year" for its "Operation Flashpoint" game; and the
Lifetime Achievement Award went to Yuji Naka, president and CEO of Sega's
Sonicteam, for his work in creating Sega's mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog.
http://www.igda.org/awards
http://www.gdconf.com

(Austin, Texas) Korean game developer NCSoft announced that it is in
development on the next edition of its popular massively multiplayer
online roleplaying game, "Lineage." The current game claims more than four
million subscribers and 330 thousand concurrent users. Austin-based Epic
Games will contribute its Unreal 3D game engine to the next version,
"Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle," which will be a prequel, set 150
years prior to the date of its precursor. The game is scheduled for
release in the first half of 2003.
http://www.lineage2.com/main_eng.html
http://www.epicgames.com

(London) Muze, a provider of informational databases on music, movies,
books and video games, said that U.K.-based online retailer Jungle.com
will use Muze products on its site. Jungle.com will incorporate New
York-based Muze's audio streaming samples, music, DVD and video game data
onto its site.
http://www.muze.com
http://www.jungle.com

(New York) The New York Times recently featured a review of Sony's new
digital videotape format and camcorder, the MicroMV. The tape is smaller
even than Sony's MiniDV format tape -- at 1.8 by 1.2 by 0.3 inches -- and
the corresponding camcorder is also small enough to "slip easily into a
purse or coat pocket."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/21/technology/circuits/21STAT.html

(San Francisco) CNET recently reported on Sony's plans to use distributed
computing in the development of its PlayStation 3 video game console. The
method uses a large group of networked computers working in tandem to
reduce the amount of time required to complete computational tasks, as
well as to share accumulated data and software across great distances.
Sony Computer Entertainment chief technical officer Shin'ichi Okamoto made
the statement yesterday at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose,
Calif. Commenting on future versions of the console, Okamoto said, "Maybe
the PlayStation 6 or 7 will be based on biotechnology."
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-866288.html?tag=cd_mh
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