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Main Stories
o RIAA Sues Another 532 Alleged Song Pirates; Many Students Targeted
o Microsoft Attacks Proposed $615 Million Fine By EU
o Jack Valenti to Step Down As CEO of MPAA in Coming Months
o Wal-Mart Launches $0.88 Digital Song Download Store
o Sony Launches $99 Hard Disk Drive Accessory for PlayStation 2
o Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP Sets First-Year Game Console Sales Record
o Kodak, Movie Tunes to Screen Weekly Music Concerts in Digital Theaters
o Europeans Largely Indifferent to 3G Services, Report Finds
o Streaming Video Firm Optibase to Acquire Media 100 Assets for $2.5 Million

o Briefly Noted: Microsoft - smartwatch sports content, Napster, The Orchard - Lookout! Records, Diggit - Elvis Presley Enterprises, Ztango - EMI-CMG, Orion Information Services - "Hugo the TV Troll," Comcast - Rentrak - VOD tracking, Mforma - athlete-endorsed games, Sony Pictures Mobile - "Spider-Man 2," Acclaim - "All-Star Baseball 2005," Journal of Game Development, LWDRM (Light Weight Digital Rights Management)

Washington -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced on Tuesday that it has filed 532 additional lawsuits against alleged music file-swappers, bringing the total number of individuals sued for copyright infringement by the record label trade group to 1,977. This third wave of suits includes actions filed against students at 21 different universities, where peer-to-peer file-sharing is extremely popular. "It's important for everyone to understand that no one is immune from the consequences of illegally 'sharing' music files," said RIAA president Cary Sherman. "Piracy, which is particularly rampant on college campuses, continues to hurt retailers, musicians, producers, record labels and the thousands of less-celebrated individuals involved in making music." The current RIAA lawsuits were filed against "John Doe" defendants, following a federal court ruling that stipulated an earlier expedited process used to obtain file-swappers' identities from their Internet service providers was illegal. None of the RIAA's lawsuits against individual file-swappers has gone to trial; the group has settled over 400 of the suits for sums averaging $3,000.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I292122D7 
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5177933.html 
http://www.riaa.com
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o Microsoft Attacks Proposed $615 Million Fine By EU

Brussels -- A day before the European Commission's official announcement, Microsoft accused the European Union on Tuesday of overreaching by including its U.S. business in calculating a fine for abusing its monopoly position. Various news outlets have reported that the EU plans to impose a fine of about $615 million on Microsoft, in addition to requiring various remedies. "We believe it's unprecedented and inappropriate for the Commission to impose a fine on a company's U.S. operations when those operations are already regulated by the U.S. government," said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's chief European lawyer. "The conduct at issue has been permitted by both the U.S. Department of Justice and a U.S. court." However, critics of Microsoft have reacted with dismay about the size of the fine, arguing that it will have little impact on the company, which has over $50 billion in cash. Various Wall Street firms have characterized the size of the fine as being "non-material" to Microsoft's financial position. In addition to the fine, Microsoft will be forced to offer a version of Windows without Windows Media Player.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/040323/eu_fin_eu_microsoft_6.html
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o Jack Valenti to Step Down As CEO of MPAA in Coming Months

Washington -- Ending months of speculation, 83-year-old Jack Valenti, the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, announced he will retire in the coming months. Valenti is one of the most powerful lobbyists in D.C. on media and technology issues, and has battled against the illegal copying of movies for years. "This is the time for me to depart as CEO. I feel that in my gut," Valenti told reporters at a trade meeting. Valenti is a former aide to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040323/leisure_valenti_3.html 
http://www.mpaa.org
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o Wal-Mart Launches $0.88 Digital Song Download Store

Brisbane, Calif. -- Retail giant Wal-Mart on Tuesday officially launched its digital music download store, which will undercut the current industry pricing standard of $0.99 by charging $0.88 per song. The company said it has increased its available catalog by over 50% since it launched a test of the service in December 2003. The service was developed in partnership with Anderson Merchandisers -- which also supplies physical CDs to Wal-Mart -- and features songs from Liquid Digital Media (formerly Liquid Audio), which was acquired by Anderson last year. Launch promotions will include exclusive tracks from Curb Records (Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes), exclusive singles from John Michael Montgomery and Gretchen Wilson, and songs by finalists of Oprah Winfrey's "Pop-Star Challenge."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040323/datu019_1.html 
http://www.walmart.com
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o Sony Launches $99 Hard Disk Drive Accessory for PlayStation 2

Foster City, Calif. -- Sony Computer Entertainment America on Tuesday launched its 40GB internal Hard Disk Drive accessory for the PlayStation 2 video game console, enabling the addition of downloadable and episodic content like new tracks, stadiums and characters to PlayStation 2 game titles. The $99 device will come pre-loaded with developer Square Enix's "Final Fantasy XI," the latest installment in the 49 million unit-selling game franchise. The massively multiplayer online roleplaying game will be free to play online for 30 days, after which time gamers must pay $12.95 per month. "With 2.6 million network ready PlayStation 2 consoles in more than 25 million homes throughout North America, the internal Hard Disk Drive paves the way for delivering countless forms of digital entertainment to this massive audience," said Sony Computer Entertainment America executive vice president Andrew House.
http://www.us.playstation.com/pressreleases.aspx?id=186
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us
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o Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP Sets First-Year Game Console Sales Record

Redmond, Wash. -- Nintendo of America announced on Tuesday that it sold over 6.5 million Game Boy Advance SP handhelds during the device's first year of availability, marking the highest one-year sales figures of any video game system in history. The Game Boy Advance SP, which features a flip-top and front-lit screen, was designed with an older demographic in mind than the typical kids who have purchased over 160 million Game Boy handheld systems over the past 14 years.
http://www.nintendo.com
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o Kodak, Movie Tunes to Screen Weekly Music Concerts in Digital Theaters

Las Vegas -- Eastman Kodak, which distributes its own digital cinema projection system, announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Studio City, Calif.-based Movie Tunes to offer alternative content like music concerts on theater screens equipped with Kodak's digital system. Movie Tunes will provide a new hour-long "Music Scene" program -- targeted at teens and featuring developing bands -- to Kodak each week, which Kodak will then distribute to its digital theaters during prime time every night during the summer. Kodak will install four new systems in Carmike Cinemas locations in connection with the program, which the company plans to extend more widely in the fall if the current test is successful.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040323/235442_1.html
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/digital/system.shtml
http://www.movietunes.us
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o Europeans Largely Indifferent to 3G Services, Report Finds

Washington -- According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, nearly one out of every two Europeans has no interest whatever in 3G, the much-anticipated technology on which many European telecommunications companies have spent billions of euro. The Harris Interactive survey showed that nearly 49% of mobile-phone users in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and the U.K. were completely indifferent to the new technology. The British, who have had access to full commercial 3G services for months now, were especially indifferent, with more than 60% of mobile users saying they were uninterested in buying a 3G phone. The report also found that 52% of all those surveyed thought that the mobile industry as a whole had failed to explain what 3G is, or why it is worth having.
http://www.harrisinteractive.com 
http://online.wsj.com/public/us
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o Streaming Video Firm Optibase to Acquire Media 100 Assets for $2.5 Million

Marlboro, Mass. -- Optibase, a provider of streaming video technology based in Israel, has agreed to acquire the assets of Massachusetts-based Media 100, a developer of advanced media systems for content design, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Under the acquisition agreement, which is subject to court approval, Optibase will acquire substantially all the assets of Media 100 for $2.5 million, as well as provide up to $1 million of secured financing. "Following approval by the Court, Optibase intends to keep Media 100 activity intact as a unit in Optibase in order to continue the development, sales, and support of the Media 100 products," said Tom Wyler, CEO of Optibase, which is a Nasdaq-listed company.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040322/225485_1.html 
http://www.media100.com 
http://www.optibase.com

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(Redmond, Wash.) Microsoft announced that it has launched a new sports content feature for smartwatches, which cost between $100-$300 and can receive content from its MSN Direct service over a wireless network. Microsoft partner ESPN will aggregate sports news and scores from the NBA, WNBA, and NCAA Division I basketball for distribution through MSN Direct, which costs $9.95 per month. Microsoft also plans to offer content from the NFL, MLB and NCAA football.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040322/sfm057_1.html 
http://www.msndirect.com

(Los Angeles) Napster, the digital music service unit of Roxio, announced on Tuesday that it has named Michelle Santosuosso as vice president of artist and label relations. Most recently, Santosuosso served as program director at Los Angeles' KHHT and national director of rhythm music at Clear Channel. She has also served as a vice president at J Records, A&R director at RCA Records and editor for HITS Magazine.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040323/latu018_1.html 
http://www.napster.com

(New York) Independent music distributor The Orchard announced on Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with punk label Lookout! Records, to distribute tracks from label artists including The Donnas, Operation Ivy and Green Day on all legal digital music services in the United States and Europe.
http://www.theorchard.com 
http://www.lookoutrecords.com

(New York) Wireless entertainment publisher Diggit announced on Tuesday an agreement with Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), to release a suite of Elvis-branded mobile content for cell phones. New York-based Diggit said it will distribute Elvis-branded ringtones and truetones, voice ringers, video clips, wallpapers and screensavers.
http://www.diggit.com 
http://www.elvis.com

(Reston, Va.) Ztango, a provider of ringtones and other wireless services, said on Tuesday it signed a deal to create and distribute ringtones for a substantial portion of EMI-CMG Music Publishing's worldwide Christian music catalog.
http://www.ztango.com 
http://www.emicmg.com

(Atlanta) Orion Information Services, a distributor of mobile entertainment content, announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Interactive Television Entertainment (ITE) to bring the children's property "Hugo the TV Troll" to the U.S. The interactive TV show features elements including text messaging (SMS), Java games and Hugo ringtones and wallpapers. Since launching the interactive TV program in Denmark in 1990, ITE reports over 6 million "Hugo" games sold on PlayStation, Nintendo and PC platforms worldwide.
http://www.ois-inc.com 
http://www.ite.dk

(Philadelphia) Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV operator, announced on Tuesday that it will conduct a test of Portland, Ore.-based Rentrak's VOD Essentials, a system that measures and reports anonymous video-on-demand usage data. The trial is scheduled to begin in May in the Philadelphia area.
http://www.comcast.com 
http://www.rentrak.com

(Santa Monica, Calif.) Mforma Group, a publisher of wireless entertainment content, announced on Tuesday new partnerships with sports figures Venus Williams, Bill Parcells and Sergei Fedorov to bring branded mobile sports games to market. "Williams World Tennis," "Bill Parcells' Football Camp" and "Sergei Fedorov Face-Off Hockey" will soon be available on U.S. wireless networks.
http://www.mforma.com

(Atlanta) Sony Pictures Mobile on Tuesday announced the slate of mobile entertainment that will be released in conjunction with Sony Pictures' film "Spider-Man 2." Mobile games will include "Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock" and "Spider-Man 2 Pinball," in addition to a number of 3D game and text-messaging games. Other mobile content will include wallpapers, ringtones and video clips. All content will be available exclusively to Sprint PCS customers for a limited time. "Spider-Man 2" is set for theatrical release on July 2.
http://www.sonypictures.com/mobile

(Glen Cove, N.Y.) Game developer Acclaim Entertainment on Tuesday shipped its "All-Star Baseball 2005" title for Microsoft Xbox to retailers. The company said that a version for PlayStation 2 will be released shortly.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040323/nytu039_1.html 
http://www.acclaim.com

(Hingham, Mass.) Charles River Media, a publisher of books on video game development, announced on Tuesday the launch of its Journal of Game Development. The $100 quarterly journal will cover game development-related areas including artificial intelligence, mathematics, physics, graphics, audio, robotics and grid computing. "The Journal of Game Development (JOGD) provides a much-needed, peer-reviewed, medium of communication and the raison d'etre for serious academic research focused solely on game-related issues," said Charles River Media president David Pallai.
http://www.charlesriver.com 
http://www.jogd.com

(San Francisco) Wired News on Tuesday reported on a new file format developed by Fraunhofer Institute, creator of MP3, which is intended to bring digital rights management features to the ubiquitous format. LWDRM (Light Weight Digital Rights Management) song files will include a digital watermark that tracks the number of times a song may be shared or downloaded to portable players. Fraunhofer said it will offer LWDRM as part of a free and fully integrated online store with a digital payment system, which will be demonstrated next spring.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62739,00.html
http://www.lwdrm.com

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