archives

o Video Game Makers Ask Court to Dismiss Suit from Columbine Relatives
o EFF Meeting With Adobe Monday to Discuss Jailed Russian Programmer
o PlanetOut Raises $4.2 Million, Lays Off 14% of Staff
o Universal Signs Video-on-Demand Deal with InDemand
o Iomega to Lay Off 800 to 1,100 Workers This Year
o Entertainment Site INextv Shuts Down
o Video Compression Firm On2 Gets $1 Million from RealNetworks
o Web Animation Technology Firm MorphInk Raises $3 Million
o Tickets.com Shareholders Approve Reverse Stock Split
> Digital Media Wire Seminar: Interactive TV | Los Angeles | July 25
o Briefly Noted: "Green Eggs and Lawsuits," Webby Awards, Encoda Systems,
"Napster diaspora"
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> Job Postings: Programmer/Analyst, Lead Program Manager, Content Database Specialist

> Events/Services: "Human Resources Seminar," "Digital Rights Management"

Full Job/Event/Services descriptions listed below "Briefly Noted" section
or at http://www.digitalmediawire.com/postings.html

To Post a Job: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html
To Post an Event/Service: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html
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o Video Game Makers Ask Court to Dismiss Suit from Columbine Relatives

Denver -- Eight video game design firms have asked a federal court in
Colorado to dismiss charges brought against them by relatives of victims
killed in the Columbine school shooting, which claim that their violent
games contributed to the killings, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The companies said in their motion that no specific game is mentioned in
the suit as motivation or having influence on Eric Harris and Dylan
Klebold's actions at Columbine High School in April 1999. The companies
named in the Columbine relatives' suit -- which seeks punitive damages of
$5 billion dollars -- are Acclaim Entertainment, Activision, Capcom
Entertainment, Eidos Interactive, Infogrames, Interplay Entertainment,
Nintendo of America and Sony Computer Entertainment America.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/games/2001-07-19-columbine.htm _____________________________________________

o EFF Meeting With Adobe Monday to Discuss Jailed Russian Programmer

San Francisco -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a legal defense fund
for Internet free speech, said on Friday that representatives from Adobe
Systems have agreed to meet with them Monday, after the group began
organizing a protest of Adobe's persecution of a Russian programmer who
wrote software that can crack its encryption. The EFF asked for organizers
to call off the protests in order to foster the discussions, and will at
the meeting ask Adobe to withdraw its charges against the programmer,
Dmitry Sklyarov. Adobe filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department
after learning of Sklyarov's software that can break the security on Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Sklyarov was arrested at a hacker convention this week by
the FBI, under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that
say breaking copyright security software is a criminal offense. The EFF
said it would rekindle the protest if the Justice Department refuses to
"persue further prosecutions under the DMCA for cases that should be
prevented under fair use provisions of US copyright law."
http://www.eff.org
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o PlanetOut Raises $4.2 Million, Lays Off 14% of Staff

San Francisco -- PlanetOut, an online community and Web portal for the gay
community, said that it has raised $4.2 million in funding from AOL
Investments and Mayfield. The added funds close out the company's fourth
round of funding at a total of $12.4 million. The company also laid off
14 percent of its staff, or 12 employees last week. San Francisco-based
PlanetOut said the layoffs -- which were made entirely in its San
Francisco office -- were due in part to its intention to create less
original content, as well as the current economy and redundancy created
from its merger with Gay.com parent company Online Partners. The company
expects to become profitable in the fourth quarter of this year.
http://www.planetout.com
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o Universal Signs Video-on-Demand Deal with InDemand

Universal City, Calif. -- InDemand, a provider of pay-per-view and
video-on-demand movies to cable providers, announced on Friday that it has
signed an agreement with Universal Studios Pay-Per-View to distribute the
studio's film content over video-on-demand systems. The companies did not
announce details of the transaction or the amount of Universal's film
library that would be made available, but included are current Universal
titles like "The Family Man" and "The Mummy Returns." Also included, from
the studio's library, are "The Sting" and "Do the Right Thing."
http://www.prnmedia.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=107&STORY=/www/story/07-20-2001/0001537551&EDATE= http://www.indemand.com
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o Iomega to Lay Off 800 to 1,100 Workers This Year

Roy, Utah -- Iomega, a developer and manufacturer of media storage devices
and discs, announced on Friday that it will lay off between 800 and 1,100
of its employees and move its corporate offices to the West Coast. The
company will also recommend a one-for-five reverse stock split in an
effort to boost the value of its shares. Utah-based Iomega cited weaker
sales of its Zip and Jaz drives, as well as the general downturn in the
economy as reasons for the layoffs and restructuring. The company also
manufactures the HipZip digital audio player.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010719/lath093.html
http://www.iomega.com
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o Entertainment Site INextv Shuts Down

Redwood City, Calif. -- Ampex Corporation, a developer of digital video
technology, announced on Friday that it will shut down its INextv
subsidiary, a provider of entertainment-related video content on the Web.
INextv's New York office will be closed immediately, and Ampex said it
will no longer develop Internet video technology at its Redwood City
facilities. Ampex attributed the closing to the difficulty in raising
additional funding to support INextv due to the current market for
Internet companies. The company will also discontinue its investments in
Los Angeles-based AENTV and Munich-based TV1.de, in which it owns minority
stakes. AENTV produces news video briefings for The Hollywood Reporter and
Billboard, while TV1.de is a German-language entertainment-related site.
Ampex will record charges totaling $10.1 million related to the closing of
INextv.
http://www.inextv.com
http://www.ampex.com
http://www.aentv.com
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o Video Compression Firm On2 Gets $1 Million from RealNetworks

New York -- On2 Technologies, a developer of video compression technology,
said that media delivery technology provider RealNetworks has licensed its
technology and will make a $1 million investment in the company.
Seattle-based RealNetworks licensed On2's VP4 video technology for use
with set-top boxes for interactive television and other devices. New
York-based On2 will develop plug-ins for the RealPlayer and other
RealNetworks products so that users can view files in its VP4 format.
On2's compression technology shrinks the size of video files while
maintaining their quality so that they can be sent more quickly and
efficiently across the Internet.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010719/2144.html
http://www.on2.com
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o Web Animation Technology Firm MorphInk Raises $3 Million

Santa Clara, Calif. -- MorphInk, a developer of technology that compresses
digital animation files, announced that it has raised $3 million in its
first round of funding. EuroVentures and Quantum Fund led the financing
round; several individual investors also participated. Santa Clara-based
MorphInk's software for creating animations results in files that are
"many times smaller" than Flash or Animated GIF files -- the two most
prevalent file formats for animation on the Web. The company is marketing
its technology as a way to deliver animations over wireless connections to
handheld devices, as well as a means of speeding the delivery of
rich-media ads and providing more efficient storage.
http://www.morphink.com/press/3m_fund.htm
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o Tickets.com Shareholders Approve Reverse Stock Split

Costa Mesa, Calif. -- Online ticket retailer Tickets.com said Friday that
its shareholders have approved a one-for-eight reverse stock split, which
the company hopes will add enough value to its stock to avoid being
delisted from the Nasdaq exchange. Costa Mesa-based Tickets.com avoided
delisting in June when investors contributed an additional $17 million in
financing to the company. The transaction will take effect on Monday.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010719/lath112.html
http://www.tickets.com
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> Digital Media Wire Presents a Panel Discussion:
"iTV: Defining the New Face of Television"

Los Angeles | Wednesday, July 25th at the Four Seasons Hotel

SPONSORS:
Deloitte Consulting
Jones Day Reavis & Pogue

This panel of players ranging from content providers to hardware
developers will discuss the new face of television, which will include
anamalgam of services like email, IPGs (interactive program guides), PVRs
(personal video recorders), enhanced TV, etc., and what it means for
Hollywood, the tech industry and most importantly, the consumer.
For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/LAitv.html

MODERATOR:
Michael Kline - Senior Manager | Deloitte Consulting

SPEAKERS:
Amy Friedlander - VP Business Development | Intertainer
Edward Monnier - Director of BizDev & Strategy | Liberty Digital
David Nathanson - Director, Broadband Strategy | Fox Cable Networks
Arthur Orduna - VP Marketing | Canal Plus Technologies
Erik Smith - Director of Content Partnerships | Liberate Technologies

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION:
larta - the technology alliance for Southern California

For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/LAitv.html
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o Briefly Noted:

(Los Angeles) This week's issue of the LA Weekly features an analysis
("Green Eggs and Lawsuits") of how artists are using the courts to protect
their creations and receive fair compensation for their efforts. It
reviews some of the history of artists' contracts with various
distribution outlets -- artists like author and cartoonist Theodor Geisel
(Dr. Seuss), musician Courtney Love and writer Jonathan Tasini -- that
have compelled them to sue distributors because of what they later saw as
unjust stipulations in their contracts that took away more of their rights
than they had originally intended to give.
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/01/35/cover-updike.shtml

(San Francisco) The 5th annual Webby Awards were held this week in San
Francisco, recognizing the best websites in categories such as activism,
film, politics, music and weird. A panel of celebrity judges chose one
group of winners, while online voters chose another group of winners. A
list of all the award winners is available at the link below.
http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/nominees.html

(Denver, Colo.) Encoda Systems, a provider of automation software for the
broadcast and Internet media industries, announced that it has appointed
Greg M. Jacobsen as its new CEO. Previously, Jacobsen was president and
CEO of XOR, a provider of e-commerce and systems management services to
businesses. He replaces chairman Steven Price, who was serving as an
interim CEO.
http://www.encodasystems.com/releases/2001/010718_jacobsen.pdf

(San Francisco) Salon.com on Friday offered its rundown of alternative
services to Napster for peer-to-peer file-sharing of music, movies and
other content that are rapidly gaining new users due to the "Napster
diaspora."
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/rose/2001/07/20/napster_diaspora/index.html

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Job Postings:
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To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html

> Music Reports, Inc., Programmer/Analyst - Los Angeles

Duties include database & software design, development, coding & testing
for business applications, as well as trouble-shooting & maintenance of
existing systems. Must have extensive coding experience in a complex
relational database/data warehouse environment that includes title
matching for large volumes of data from various sources designing &
implementing technical solutions for research, data retrieval, delivery
and reporting. Send resumes to: Dbrainin@musicreports.com
http://www.musicreports.com
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> MusicNet, Lead Program Manager - Seattle

Direct & manage the overall activities of a team of program managers &
coordinate cross-group and/or cross-division projects. Projects involve
assessing new technologies & developing product development plans,
estimating resources & costs, schedules & work development plans.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent in computer science, business or related
field, plus 3 years experience in project management and software
development.
Send resumes to: resumes@musicnet.com and include the job title.
http://www.musicnet.com
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> The Sharper Image, Content Database Specialist - San Francisco

Manage The Sharper Image websites. Development & maintain ongoing
production schedules, updates, content & art placement. Produce style
guides for site continuity. Manage 3-person team involved in site content
management, updates and brand presentation. 3+ yrs. experience managing
people in a production or development setting required. Send resumes to:
tsi@rpc.webhire.com
http://www.sharperimage.com

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Events/Services Postings:
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To Post Events/Services: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html

> Human Resources Seminar: Recruitment, Retention and "Rightsizing"

"Managing Your People in the Current Market: Recruitment, Retention and
Rightsizing." The panelists will share their varied expertise on
compensation, outplacement, legal issues, employee communications, and
recruitment tools in the current market. When: Wednesday, July 25, 2001.
Where: McLean Hilton. For more information and to register for this event:
http://www.potomactechwire.com/seminar10.htm
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> Digital Rights Management, September 20-21 - New York City

DRM for Sports, Media & Entertainment -- Learn How To Monetize & Protect
Content, Digital Assets & Intellectual Property. Featuring Forecasts, Case
Studies & Strategies from: AOL Time Warner, Sony Music, NY Times, National
Hockey League, A&E Networks, Microsoft Corporation, BET, Artisan,
Reciprocal, IBM, NASCAR Digital Entertainment and many more! Contact
dmitry@worldrg.com -- mention this ad for a special discount!
http://www.DRMconference.com
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