Main Stories
o Canada Rules Music File-Sharing Legal, Denies Motions to ID Song-Swappers
o House Judiciary Subcommittee Passes New Anti-Piracy Bill
o Google to Launch Free 1GB Searchable Email Service
o MLB to Stream Games for Comcast, Charter, Cablevision 'Net Subscribers
o U.K. Download Store OD2 Sells One Millionth Song
o Game Developer Zone4Play Raises $1.2 Million in Share Placement
o M-Qube Acquires Mobile Content Download Provider Sharp Robot

o Briefly Noted: Major League Baseball Advanced Media - InfoSpace Mobile, Netflix - 1.9 million subscribers, MusicNet - U.K. office, Washingtonpost.com - new large ad format, Electronic Arts - "Def Jam Vendetta II," Eidos - Highway 1 Productions, Sony Online Entertainment - "EverQuest II," Gathering - Destineer Publishing, CinemaElectric - SonyEricsson, "Circuit-bending" music

Toronto -- In a ruling that could have tremendous effects on music downloading in the country, a Canadian federal court has denied motions from the Canadian record industry to identify alleged music file-swappers from their Internet service providers, adding that downloading songs for personal use and offering them to others online is legal in Canada. In February, the Canadian Record Industry Association (CRIA) filed motions to require five Canadian Internet service providers to disclose the identities of 29 subscribers it believed were offering music on file-sharing services. The CRIA then intended to file copyright infringement lawsuits against the alleged pirates, similar to the tactics taken in the U.S. by the Recording Industry Association of America -- which has sued nearly 2,000 Americans for copyright infringement. "We are reviewing the decision received today from the trial court and expect to appeal it," said CRIA general counsel Richard Pfohl. "In our view, the copyright law in Canada does not allow people to put hundreds or thousands of music files on the Internet for copying, transmission and distribution to millions of strangers." Earlier this week, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said it filed suits seeking the identities of alleged file-swappers in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada; Wednesday's decision will likely have an affect on the IFPI litigation as well.
http://www.cria.ca/news/cria_31mar04.htm 
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5182641.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-piracy1apr01.story
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o House Judiciary Subcommittee Passes New Anti-Piracy Bill

Washington -- The U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property on Wednesday passed a new bill that would provide new jail terms for file-swappers and those who pirate movies in theaters to post on the Internet. Sponsored by Reps. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and lobbied for by copyright holders, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act (PDEA) would grant the FBI more leeway to get information from Internet service providers on their users, and earmark $15 million in 2005 for the Justice Dept. to investigate copyright crimes. New penalties under the act would provide prison terms up to 3 years and fines of up to $250,000 for anyone who offers $1,000 in copyrighted materials on a file-sharing service like Kazaa. "This is a common-sense bill that ensures that federal prosecutors have the tools and expertise they need to fully enforce the laws on the books," said Recording Industry Association of America CEO Mitch Bainwol. Opponents argued the bill, which will next be examined by the full House Judiciary, grants the FBI too much power and is a misuse of taxpayers' money. "It's troubling that the government is considering expanding the rights of property owners by broadening the scope of criminal law and lowering the burden of proof," said Adam Eisgrau of P2P United, a file-sharing lobbying group. The Justice Dept. also this week announced the formation of an intellectual-property task force, designed to survey how the department deals with piracy of music, movies and software. The task force will be led by deputy chief of staff and counselor to the attorney general David Israelite.
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/pdf/ne/2004/pdea2004.pdf 
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5182898.html
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62895,00.html
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o Google to Launch Free 1GB Searchable Email Service

Mountain View, Calif. -- Search engine giant Google announced on Thursday the launch of a beta test for a new free email service, which through its 1GB of storage and email search capabilities the company said will enable users to never have to delete mail to accommodate storage limits. The "Gmail" service takes aim at free email providers like Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo, which offer no more than 4MB of storage by comparison. Google plans to keep the service free by offering advertisers the ability to place contextual ads inside messages, based in part on the contents of an email's text, News.com reported. A Google spokesperson told CNET News.com that the service will likely come out of its 1,000-person beta test and launch officially for all users in a matter of weeks. "My feeling is that we have already done an awful lot of testing, so it will be a limited test period -- a matter of weeks," Google U.K.'s Kate Burns told News.com.
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/gmail.html 
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5182805.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google1apr01.story 
http://gmail.google.com
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o MLB to Stream Games for Comcast, Charter, Cablevision Broadband Subscribers

New York -- Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) announced on Thursday a deal with top cable TV providers Comcast, Charter and Cablevision, to offer broadband coverage of baseball games to their high-speed Internet subscribers. The MLB.com All-Access service will allow subscribers to access live and archived video and audio of every game played, in addition to searchable video clips, customizable highlights, and a library of vintage broadcasts. Under the deal, Cablevision, Charter and Comcast will each pay MLBAM a wholesale fee for every new subscriber. The cable firms will offer promotions such as a free season-long subscription to the service for new broadband customers, and a 20% discount on the $100 service to existing subscribers.
http://www.mlb.com
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o U.K. Download Store OD2 Sells One Millionth Song

London -- OD2, the U.K.-based provider of digital music download store technology for European retail partners including MSN, Tiscali, Tower Records and Virgin, announced that it sold its one-millionth song during the first quarter of 2004. The company, which is the main digital music provider for Europe, said the number of downloads sold during the first quarter of this year are double those sold in the fourth quarter of 2003, and ten times the number sold in the same period last year. By comparison, Apple's iTunes Store has sold over 50 million songs thus far in the U.S. OD2 said revenue from downloads and licensing fees from the first quarter totaled $1.84 million.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F2D8329E7 
http://www.od2.com
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o Game Developer Zone4Play Raises $1.2 Million in Share Placement

Wilmington, Del. -- Zone4Play, a developer of online, mobile and interactive TV games, announced on Thursday that it has raised $1.2 million through a private placement of its shares with a group of institutional and individual investors. Delaware-based Zone4Play's cross-system product line allows access to a variety of platforms through only one user account. The company will use the funds to expand its infrastructure and to develop new multiplayer titles.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040401/ukth009_1.html 
http://www.zone4play.com
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o M-Qube Acquires Mobile Content Download Provider Sharp Robot

Boston -- Mobile application developer m-Qube announced on Friday its acquisition of Toronto-based mobile content download provider Sharp Robot. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Boston-based m-Qube provides connectivity, application development, monitoring, billing and transport to providers of mobile content like ringtones and games. The company said its purchase of Sharp Robot will provide additional mobile capabilities including content production, licensing, delivery and content publishing.
http://www.m-qube.com 
http://www.sharprobot.com

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(New York) Major League Baseball Advanced Media announced on Thursday a content licensing agreement with mobile content publisher InfoSpace Mobile, that will allow InfoSpace to distribute logos from all 30 MLB teams for download to cell phones. The logos are expected to become available shortly for Cingular, T-Mobile USA, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless, HelloMoto.com, NokiaUSA.com and Samsung Fun Club subscribers.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040401/15213_1.html 
http://www.mlb.com 
http://www.infospacemobile.com

(Los Gatos, Calif.) Online DVD rental service Netflix announced on Thursday that it ended the first quarter of 2004 with a total of 1.9 million subscribers, an 84% increase over the number reported in the first quarter of 2003. The company credited its national television advertising campaign for the surge.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040401/sfth038_1.html 
http://www.netflix.com

(New York) MusicNet, the digital music service joint venture between AOL, Time Warner, EMI and Bertelsmann, announced on Thursday the opening of an office in the U.K. to handle the company's international expansion efforts. MusicNet named Mark Mooradian, who will be based in London, to spearhead international initiatives. The company recently announced a deal with Virgin to integrate and promote a digital download store and subscription music club.
http://www.musicnet.com

(Arlington, Va.) Washingtonpost.com on Thursday launched a new unit of ad space that it says offers advertisers the largest amount of homepage space available on any major news site. The space sits on the right-hand side of the site's homepage and has the same dimension as half page ads that currently run on the site's article pages. Marriott International has initially purchased the space, with American Airlines also scheduled to begin using the ad.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040401/dcth010_1.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com

(Redwood City, Calif.) Game developer Electronic Arts announced on Thursday that it has once again teamed with hip-hop record label Def Jam to create a sequel to its "Def Jam Vendetta" title, which featured Def Jam artists as characters within the game. "Def Jam Vendetta II" will feature over 70 characters, including Busta Rhymes, Carmen Electra, Lil' Kim, Ludacris, Method Man, Redman, Sean Paul, Slick Rick and Snoop Dogg. The game is currently being developed for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube by EA Canada and Japan-based AKI Corporation for a fall 2004 release.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040401/15183_1.html 
http://www.akiworld.co.jp 
http://www.defjam.com
http://www.easportsbig.com/games/defjamvendetta/home.jsp

(San Francisco) U.K.-based video game developer Eidos said on Thursday that it has secured a development partnership deal with newly founded independent game studio Highway 1 Productions. The companies are currently collaborating on a third person, urban action game with an online component for PlayStation 2 and Xbox that will be showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo next month.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040401/sfth008_1.html 
http://www.eidos.com 
http://www.hwy1productions.com

(San Diego) Sony Online Entertainment said on Thursday that the upcoming "EverQuest II" sequel to its popular massively multiplayer online roleplaying game will feature more than 130 hours of dialogue spoken by non-player characters within the game. The company hired over 100 actors to voice nearly 100,000 lines to add a new dimension of realism to the game, which is slated for release in the fourth quarter of 2004.
http://www.sonyonline.com/corp/press_releases/033104_EQ2_voice.html
http://www.everquest.com

(New York) Gathering, a video game publishing label of Take-Two Interactive, announced on Thursday an agreement with Minnesota-based Destineer Publishing, to release the company's "Close Combat: First to Fight" and "Close Combat: Red Phoenix" game titles. Both games are currently in development for Xbox, PC and Mac by Destineer and Austin-based Atomic Games for release in late 2004/early 2005.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040401/15180_1.html 
http://www.godgames.com 
http://www.destineerstudios.com 
http://www.atomic.com

(Hollywood) CinemaElectric, a provider of mobile video clips, announced on Thursday an agreement to distribute its content through Sony Ericsson's Fun and Download service, available in 48 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. CinemaElectric's 90kb video clips can be played on advanced Sony Ericsson mobile phones such as the P900, P800 and K-700 models.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040331/law068_1.html 
http://www.sonyericsson.com 
http://www.cinemaelectric.com

(San Francisco) Wired News on Thursday reported on "bent" music, which is created by hacking open children's toys and other synthesized sound-producing devices and altering ("bending") their circuits so they create strange new sounds. A festival of circuit-bending music called Bent 2004 will take place this week at Spaceworks at The Tank in New York City. "As I began cracking open a small toy cell phone for the first time, I had few expectations and little hope of having any fun. But within 10 minutes I was frantically jabbing at small lumps of solder, which I could not have imagined would produce the bizarre sounds that I was hearing," festival co-curator Daniel Greenfeld told Wired News.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62894,00.html
http://circuitbending.com/bent

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