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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- April 11, 2003
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o L.A. Times: Apple Interested in Acquiring Universal Music Group
o Congress Passes Key Child Porn Legislation
o Sony Trademarks "Shock and Awe" Catchphrase for Use in Video Game
o Studio-Backed Movielink Video-on-Demand Service Sued Over Patent
o Univ. President Condemns RIAA Copyright Suit Targeting Student
o Report: Online Ad Revenue Sees 2% Increase Quarter-Over-Quarter
> DMW Publications: March Law and Policy Report
> Featured Section: HP Workstation for a PC Price
o Briefly Noted: T-Online - German soccer webcasts, Atari - "Dragon Ball
Z: The Legacy of Goku II," Running With Scissors - "Go Postal 2," James
Cameron - new 3D film technology, Hollywood studio film production -
online "tracking boards"
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> Events: Games & Mobile Forum: April 28 | NYC
> Marketplace: Discreet cleaner XL, TechSpotter, Game Industry Report,
iTV Chronicle, Interest-Based Navigation
Full Classifieds located beneath "Briefly Noted" section below.
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o L.A. Times: Apple Interested in Acquiring Universal Music Group
Los Angeles -- The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that Apple
Computer is in talks with Franco-American media conglomerate Vivendi
Universal to purchase its Universal Music Group of record labels for as
much as $6 billion. Both Apple and UMG declined to comment on the deal,
which would unburden debt-laden Vivendi of a unit that saw its operating
profit fall 23 percent to $510 million last year. Apple would gain a
record label group responsible for generating 25 percent of the world's CD
sales, and plant Apple firmly as the leader in the digital music industry,
despite its holding only around 3 percent of the computer market. Sources
within Apple have told various publications that the company is working to
launch its own digital music distribution service, and has already secured
licenses from four of the five major record labels.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-apple11apr11004423,1,1447
40.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dtechnology
http://news.com.com/2100-1042-996532.html?tag=fd_top
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o Congress Passes Key Child Porn Legislation
Washington, D.C. -- Congress on Thursday passed legislation designed to
protect children from both being exploited by pornographers and
unintentionally viewing adult web sites, The Washington Post reported. The
House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the Child Abduction Prevention
Act, which bans the altering of pornographic images to look like children
and also threatens jail time to web site operators who deliberately mask
their pornographic sites behind innocuous domain names. Congress decided
to include the misleading domain name bill, which was first introduced
last year, as an amendment to the act that passed on Thursday. "You can't
have a fraudulent storefront on the Internet and have kids walk in and
find themselves in the adult section -- triple X -- when they came in
looking for Hardy Boys," said Rep. Mike Pence, who first introduced the
legislation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4830-2003Apr10.html
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o Sony Trademarks "Shock and Awe" Catchphrase for Use in Video Game
New York -- U.K. news site MediaGuardian.co.uk reports that Sony Computer
Entertainment America applied for a trademark on the phrase "Shock and
Awe" for use in a video game on March 21, one day after the war in Iraq
started. The catchphrase, coined by former U.S. navy pilot Harlan Ullman
and adopted by Washington, was used to describe the bombing campaign of
the country that began on the second night of the war. The application
does not by itself indicate that any product will be developed or released
using the name. The site also reported that U.K. game developer SCi Games
on Feb. 25 registered the trademark "Conflict Desert Storm II: Back to
Baghdad" in the U.S. Some have criticized the moves as attempts to exploit
the war for monetary purposes.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/story/0,7494,933239,00.html
http://makeashorterlink.com/?K47A21E24
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o Studio-Backed Movielink Video-on-Demand Service Sued Over Patent
Old Lyme, Conn. -- USA Video Technologies, a developer of Internet media
delivery services, on Thursday filed a patent infringement suit against
Movielink, an online video-on-demand service hatched by a group of
Hollywood movie studios. Connecticut-based USA Video says that Movielink
-- whose backers include Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, MGM, Universal
Studios and Sony Pictures -- is infringing on its patent that covers
"media delivery services that allow Internet users to request and receive
digitized movies online." USA Video is asking the Delaware federal court
with which it filed suit for a declaratory judgment of both infringement
and willful infringement, permanent injunctive relief, compensatory and
treble damages, interest and legal costs, as well as a jury trial on all
appropriate issues. "The potential for this technology is enormous," said
USA Video president Edwin Molina. "The fact that the major studios have
already moved forward to deploy it, albeit in violation of the patent,
makes it clear that the home distribution of movies has already entered a
new era."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030411/115251_1.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-996442.html?tag=fd_top
http://www.movielink.com
http://www.usvo.com
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o Univ. President Condemns RIAA Copyright Suit Targeting Student
Houghton, Michigan -- Michigan Technological University president Curtis
J. Tompkins last week sent an open letter to the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA), criticizing the organization for filing a
copyright infringement suit against one of its students who was operating
a campus file-sharing network. Tompkins says the RIAA did not follow its
own protocol for informing schools about Internet piracy and dealing with
offenders. "I am very disappointed that the RIAA decided to take this
action in this manner," wrote Tompkins. "As a fully cooperating site, we
would have expected the courtesy of being notified early and allowing us
to take action following established procedures, instead of allowing it to
get to the point of lawsuits and publicity."
http://www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/news/media_relations/95
http://www.riaa.org/PR_story.cfm?id=629
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o Report: Online Ad Revenue Sees 2% Increase Quarter-Over-Quarter
New York -- In a small bright spot for the industry, Internet advertising
revenue in the U.S. totaled $1.5 billion for the fourth quarter of 2002,
representing a 2 percent increase over the third quarter's totals and the
first consecutive quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2000,
according to an Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) study conducted by
PricewaterhouseCoopers. For the full year 2002, online ad revenue totaled
$5.95 billion, a 17 percent decrease from 2001 -- partially attributable
to the conclusion of some long-term advertising deals, according to the
IAB. "The improved performance over the past two quarters reflects a
stabilizing online advertising market, highlighted by continued strength
in paid-for-search results. The recent upturn, coupled with forecasts of
continued expansion of broadband distribution, bodes well for a strong
year in 2003," said PricewaterhouseCoopers New Media Group chair Tom
Hyland.
http://www.iab.net/news/pr_2003_4_9.asp
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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:
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Digital Media Law & Policy Report - New Issue
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media. Thirty-two pages of case summaries, news and analysis, policy
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Published monthly. March issue on sale now!
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Price: $19.00 Per Issue | $195.00 Annual Subscription
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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:
(Berlin) Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Online has purchased the Internet
broadcasting rights to German first division soccer games and will begin
to show highlights as early as this weekend. Although details of the sale
were not revealed, Europe's largest Internet service provider is believed
to have paid a figure in the low, single-digit million euros for the
broadcasting rights. The move comes as part of T-Online's strategy to
increase revenues through the sale of premium media content, the company
said.
http://www.telekom3.de/de-p/aktu/3-ne/2003/04-a/030410-t-online-bundesliga-ar.html
(Beverly, Mass.) Video game publisher Atari, a unit of French publisher
Infogrames, announced on Friday that it will release "Dragon Ball Z: The
Legacy of Goku II" for Game Boy Advance in June. Developed by
Illinois-based WebFoot Technologies, the game is a sequel to the title
based on the popular children's animated series "Dragon Ball Z."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030411/115201_1.html
http://www.webfootgames.com
http://www.dbzgamer.com
(Tucson, Ariz.) Independent game developer Running With Scissors said on
Friday that its "Go Postal 2" title for PC will be released in stores on
April 14. Arizona-based Running With Scissors said the game will initially
be available in North America, Europe, Japan and Russia.
http://www.gopostal.com
(Redmond, Wash.) MSNBC.com on Friday featured a story on "Titanic"
director James Cameron's experiments with digital-age 3D technology, which
he is using to produce an underwater tour of Titanic wreckage called,
"Ghosts of the Abyss." Cameron is using updated 3D cameras and digital
image processing that provide for better stereo photography for the film,
which in addition to IMAX distribution will also be projected on
traditional 35mm-sized theater screens. Portions of the upcoming "Spy Kids
3D" were filmed using the technology, and Cameron told MSNBC.com he will
shoot his next feature with it.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/897579.asp?0si=-
(San Francisco) The latest issue of WIRED magazine features an article on
the Hollywood film industry's online "tracking boards," where top studio
heads go online in a secure setting to exchange information on potential
projects. The majority are operated by Los Angeles-based
Baseline-FilmTracker, a unit of Hollywood Media Corp., and fetch
subscription fees of up to $300 per month. "When someone wants onto the
board," one anonymous studio executive told WIRED, "the moderator emails
us all and asks if that person is OK. We can blackball someone we don't
like. It's like sorority rush."
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/hollywood.html
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CLASSIFIEDS - EVENTS
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CLASSIFIEDS - MARKETPLACE
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