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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- April 2, 2003
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To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com
o Report: Microsoft Developing Search Services
o Tecmo Threatens Hackers Creating Nude Versions of Game Characters
o AMD-Fujitsu Joint Venture to Take on Intel in Flash Memory
o Video-on-Demand Firm NCube Wins Patent Judgment Against Rival SeaChange
o Nielsen/NetRatings, Univision Create Hispanic Internet Audience Panel
> DMW Publications: March Law and Policy Report
> Featured Section: Discreet cleaner XL
o Briefly Noted: Netflix, MusicMatch - indie labels, MLB.com, Macrovision,
Internet Streaming Media Alliance, Electronic Arts - "Battlefield 1942:
Secret Weapons of WWII," Open eBook Forum, MSNBC.com - Financial Times,
Aspyr Media - "NASCAR Racing 2003 Season," Microsoft's Windows Digital
Media - Dave Fester, New Radiohead album - file-sharing networks,
Correction
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> Events: L.A. HIPAA Security and Privacy Conference, Games & Mobile
Forum: April 28 | NYC
> Marketplace: HP Workstation, TechSpotter, Game Industry Report,
iTV Chronicle, Interest-Based Navigation
Full Classifieds located beneath "Briefly Noted" section below.
To post a Classified Ad:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/mainpostingpage.html
or contact Tinzar Than at tinzar@digitalmediawire.com
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o Report: Microsoft Developing Search Services
Old Greenwich, Conn. -- Microsoft is reportedly ramping up internal
development of search technology, in a bid to end its reliance on
companies like Overture Services that provide pay-for-performance search
listings for the company, according to a research report published by
Connecticut-based SoundView Technology Group. "We believe Microsoft will
be developing its own paid search platform," SoundView analyst Jordan
Rohan wrote, in the report. The announcement sent shares of Pasadena-based
Overture Services, which denies the claim, to a 52-week low. Overture
spokesman Al Duncan told Reuters the claim was "simply wrong based on our
ongoing communications with Microsoft." Microsoft also denied the claim.
"We're completely committed to our relationship with Overture. We have no
plans to develop our own paid-search platform," Bob Visse, director of
marketing for Microsoft's MSN, told Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=2496953
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-995086.html
http://www.soundview.com
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o Tecmo Threatens Hackers Creating Nude Versions of Game Characters
London -- Japanese video game maker Tecmo has threatened legal action
against hackers creating software that inserts nude versions of the female
characters featured in its popular Xbox title "Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach
Volleyball," the BBC Online reported on Tuesday. The game features the
female characters from Tecmo's million-selling "Dead or Alive" franchise
playing volleyball in bikinis, while the software patches in question,
developed by Xbox hackers, alter the game so the female characters appear
nude. "We're watching you very closely! Please do not post things that
infringe copyrights and other legal issues," Tecmo said on its official
online forum for the game. "Please do not post anything about nude patches
and other hacked information or you will be punished to the fullest extent
of the law. So far we're tracking one suspect, anybody care to be the
second?" Tecmo has already successfully prosecuted a case in Japan
involving code that created a nude version of one of its other game's
characters.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2904877.stm
http://www.tecmoinc.com/press/releases/01.21.03.html
http://www.xbox.com/doaxb/opendoax.html
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o AMD-Fujitsu Joint Venture to Take on Intel in Flash Memory
Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced
a joint venture with Japanese memory chipmaker Fujitsu, which will supply
flash memory for use in cell phones and other devices. The new company, to
be named FASL and based in Sunnyvale, Calif., will begin production in the
third quarter and is expected to provide heavy competition for
market-leader Intel. FASL, which will also have a Japanese headquarters in
Tokyo, will have about 7,000 employees and a net book value of more than
$2.5 billion. AMD will own 60 percent of the company, with Fujitsu owning
the other 40 percent. The two companies have had a 50-50 manufacturing
joint venture since 1993.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030331/315443_1.html
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o Video-on-Demand Firm NCube Wins Patent Judgment Against Rival SeaChange
Portland, Ore. -- NCube, a provider of equipment for delivering on-demand
media programming, announced on Wednesday that it has prevailed in patent
litigation against rival SeaChange International. Delaware District Court
Judge Joseph J. Farnan awarded NCube double the damages it claimed in the
suit, as well as legal fees incurred. Oregon-based NCube sued
Massachusetts-based SeaChange in Jan. 2001, claiming the company was
infringing on its patent covering video server architecture that allows
the server to provide scalable services to all service providers, and
requires only minimal changes to make it compatible with the service
providers' existing systems.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030402/sfw071_1.html
http://www.ncube.com
http://www.seachangeinternational.com
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o Nielsen/NetRatings, Univision Create Hispanic Internet Audience Panel
New York -- Internet audience measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings
announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Spanish-language media
company Univision Online to create an Internet audience measurement panel
to better understand Hispanic consumer behavior online. The five-year
agreement will result in the creation of new Hispanic Internet audience
ratings, which will be folded into the current Nielsen//NetRatings panel.
New York-based Nielsen/NetRatings said the Hispanic Internet panel will
launch in the fourth quarter of 2003.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030402/sfw056_1.html
http://www.univision.com
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com
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==========================================
DMW Publications: March Law & Policy Report
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Contact tinzar@digitalmediawire.com or call 323-464-0793 to order your
copies.
To purchase directly, go to:
http://kb.digitalmediawire.com/marketplace.php
Digital Media Law & Policy Report - New Issue
Must-read publication on legal and policy matters related to digital
media. 32 pages of case summaries, news and analysis, policy updates,
court filings, and exclusive interviews with legal counsel and business
leaders.
Published monthly. March issue on sale now!
**Special Reduced Rates available for a limited time**
Price: $19.00 Per Issue | $195.00 Annual Subscription
http://kb.digitalmediawire.com/marketplace.php
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==================
FEATURED SECTION
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Featured Section posting at:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/featuredpostingpage.htm
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Briefly Noted:
(Los Gatos, Calif.) Online DVD rental services Netflix announced on
Wednesday that its subscriber base grew 74 percent over the past year to
1,052,000, a number that beat its own projection by 27,000 subscribers.
The company had 603,000 subscribers at the end of the first quarter of
2002. Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix additionally said its household
penetration rate in the San Francisco Bay Area sits at 4.6 percent, and
its national household penetration rate is currently 0.90 percent.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030401/sftu100_1.html
http://www.netflix.com
(San Diego) MusicMatch, a provider of digital music player software and
online subscription services, announced on Wednesday new licensing
agreements with independent music labels Rounder Records, TVT and V2, that
will add songs from the labels' artists to its Artist On Demand service.
San Diego-based MusicMatch's Artist On Demand service offers on-demand
streaming of songs from major labels and a number of independents to its
135,000 paying subscribers.
http://www.musicmatch.com
(New York) Major League Baseball Advanced Media said on Wednesday that
MLB.com saw over 10 million visitors on Monday, Opening Day of the 2003
season. The figure topped the site's previous single-day record of 3.6
million visitors, for the last day of online balloting for the 2002
All-Star Game. Opening Day in 2002 drew some 2 million visitors to the
site.
http://www.mlb.com
(Santa Clara, Calif.) Macrovision, a provider of copy-protection
technologies for CD, DVD and other media, announced on Wednesday that its
copy-protection scheme has now been implemented on over 100 million music
CDs, including releases from most of the five major labels. Santa Clara,
Calif.-based Macrovision produces "dual session" music CDs that contain
both "red book" audio files, which play on traditional music playback
devices and car stereos, and "second session" data files that can be
played on a consumer's PC, but may not be ripped and copied. Macrovision
rival SunnComm recently scored a deal with major label BMG's Arista
Records to provide copy-protection on U.S. market releases.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030402/25294_1.html
http://www.macrovision.com
(Mountain View, Calif.) The Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA), a
consortium of companies working to develop a universal, open standard for
Internet streaming media, announced on Wednesday it is releasing for peer
review a new content protection specification. Mountain View, Calif.-based
ISMA, whose members include Apple, Philips, AOL Time Warner and Sony, said
finalization of the new content protection specification is expected in
June. The specification provides a single, end-to-end encryption scheme
for streaming media and file downloading that can easily integrate with
different key and rights management solutions and licensed content
protection devices.
http://www.isma.tv
(Redwood City, Calif.) Game developer Electronic Arts on Wednesday
announced that developer Digital Illusions Canada, a unit of Sweden-based
Digital Illusions, is currently at work on "Battlefield 1942: Secret
Weapons of WWII" for PC. The title is an expansion pack for the popular
"Battlefield 1942" game, offering new battlefields, vehicles and weapons,
and will be released in the fall of 2003.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030402/25317_1.html
http://www.dice.se
http://www.battlefield1942.ea.com
(New York) The Open eBook Forum, an international standards group
developing eBook software, announced on Wednesday a new version (1.2) of
its Open eBook Publication Structure, offering increased control over
content presentation than available in previous versions. The Open eBook
Publication Structure is an XML-based format for the content, structure
and presentation of electronic books that lets publishers create a single
version of a publication that can be easily transformed into other
formats. Open eBook Forum members include Adobe, Microsoft and Palm.
http://www.openebook.org/pressroom/pressreleases/adoption1.2.htm
http://www.openebook.org/oebps/oebps1.2/index.htm
(Redmond, Wash.) News site MSNBC.com said on Wednesday it has struck a
content distribution agreement with newspaper The Financial Times. Under
the terms, FT will provide up to 15 headlines per day to a co-branded
MSNBC.com page, covering international news, global business news, and
equities and market news.
http://www.ft.com
http://www.msnbc.com
(Austin) Aspyr Media, a publisher of entertainment software for the Mac,
said on Wednesday it will co-publish, along with Vivendi Universal Games'
Sierra Entertainment unit, "NASCAR Racing 2003 Season" for the Mac. The
game was developed by Austin-based Westlake Interactive.
http://www.vugames.com
http://www.westlakeinteractive.com
http://www.aspyr.com
(San Francisco) CNET News.com on Wednesday featured an interview with Dave
Fester, general manager of Microsoft's Windows Digital Media division. In
the article, Fester responds to questions about why the unit is not
separate from Windows, and how the company is catering to Hollywood
entertainment companies wary of distributing their copyrighted movies and
songs over the Internet through its digital rights management
technologies.
http://news.com.com/2008-1082-994933.html?tag=fd_nc_1
(London) NME.com reports that tracks from Capitol Records artist
Radiohead's upcoming album, "Hail to the Thief," have already appeared on
file-sharing services, months before the album's release date on June 9.
"I feel bemused, not annoyed," Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood wrote on the
band's official message board. "It's a little earlier than we'd expected,
but there it is. Surprised, and still not used to it happening, even after
all these years. I worry more that stuff we do won't get released for
whatever obscure reason, and I hate the 3 month gap between finish and
release. But not enough to leak it myself!"
http://www.nme.com/news/104639.htm
http://www.hollywoodandvine.com/radiohead
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CLASSIFIEDS - JOBS
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CLASSIFIEDS - EVENTS
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To Post Events: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/eventpostingpage.htm
2003 Los Angeles HIPAA Security and Privacy Conference
With HIPAA DEADLINES drawing near, you can't afford to miss this
EDUCATIONAL HALF-DAY CONFERENCE!
Topics include: "What HIPAA Is & Isn't," "Health Information Privacy:
Discovering Your Points of Exposure and What You Can Do To Address Them,"
"Internet Security Solutions for HIPAA Compliance" and "HIPAA Compliance
Strategies"
Date: Wednesday, April 23rd, 2003
Place: Univ. of Southern California (Davidson Executive Conference Center)
Time: 8:00 AM to 12:15 PM
http://www.dataconnectors.com
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Digital Media Wire Presents...Games & Mobile Forum
April 2003, New York City
Focusing on games and mobile entertainment opportunities and business
models. Panel topics will include "The Battle to Control the Living Room:
Is the Game Industry Winning?", "Mobile Games: Business Models & New
Opportunities", "Legal & Policy Issues Impacting the Game Industry &
Mobile Entertainment", and "Home Networking: Technology for Modern Living
& Entertainment."
Door Tickets Price: $250. For Early Bird Specials, pre-register at:
http://kb.digitalmediawire.com/register.php?eventid=1025
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CLASSIFIEDS - MARKETPLACE
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Covering the period 2000 to the present, this sourcebook presents a
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Digital Media Wire, Inc. leverages its integrated media network to provide
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the convergence of media, entertainment and technology. Digital Media
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Digital Media Wire is part of the Tech Wire Media Group, an international
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Copyright 2003 Digital Media Wire, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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