archives

o Appeals Court Stays Injunction To Shut Down Napster
o MP3.com Says Its Liabilities Could Exceed $10 Billion
o TheStreet.com: Yahoo Preparing To Launch Second Video Channel
o Briefly Noted: CuteMX, Soundbreak.com, Oak Technology,
Universal - Pseudo, Stickyflicks.com, Medium4.com,
Garageband.com
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o Appeals Court Stays Injunction Against Napster

San Francisco -- Napster won a small legal victory Friday afternoon as a
three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of
an injunction to close down the popular site at midnight tonight. "The
preliminary injunction issued by the district court in this matter is
stayed pending further order of this court,'' the appellate judges said in
a brief statement that caught many observers off guard. The ruling allows
Napster to stay in operation until the company has a chance to present its
appeal in full. On Wednesday, Federal Judge Marilyn Patel ruled that
Napster was infringing on the copyrights of major record companies; she
issued a preliminary injunction that would have required the company to
close down its service tonight. Napster users had been feverishly
downloading files over the last two days in anticipation of the closure.
Today, Napster called on its users to boycott the major record labels and
support artists who provide free downloads on the Napster site. One web
site, proboards.com, claimed that nearly 90,000 people had signed a
petition to boycott the record companies. "The injunction against Napster
has been stayed," read the home page on proboards.com. "Keep showing your
support."
http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/07/28/napster.stay/index.html
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o MP3.com Says Its Liabilities Could Exceed $10 Billion

San Diego, Ca -- MP3.com, which announced this morning that it has settled
a legal dispute with EMI Group, said in a regulatory filing Thursday that
its potential liability in its ongoing legal battle with a number of
record companies "could exceed tens of billions of dollars." While San
Diego-based MP3.com could never conceivably pay that amount -- the company
has a market value of $672 million -- the filing nonetheless points to the
potential liability hanging over a number of public and private online
music companies. MP3.com’s quarterly report stated, "At the maximum
statutory rate of $150,000 per work, our aggregate potential liability
resulting from all of our litigation proceedings could exceed tens of
billions of dollars." This morning MP3.com announced that it has reached
an agreement EMI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Reuters reported
that MP3.com agreed to pay EMI around $20 million to settle the lawsuit.
MP3.com still has not reached a settlement with Sony or Universal Music.
http://208.239.62.10/xmldata/generic.asp?FileNumber=50718.xml&XSLFile=main.xsl
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o TheStreet.com: Yahoo Preparing To Launch Second Video Channel

New York -- TheStreet.com reported that Yahoo will launch a second video
channel that focuses on online shopping by the end of the year. Four
months ago, Yahoo launched a "financial channel" called FinanceVision that
primarily uses streaming media content. "The establishment of a second
online video channel illustrates how, well before any material revenue or
significant audience, Yahoo is laying the groundwork to become a major
force in original video programming on the Internet," TheStreet.com
article said. The article said Yahoo's new shopping channel, which is
scheduled to launch by the end of the year, will aggregate shopping video
content from a number of different online retailers.
http://www.thestreet.com/tech/internet/1018268.html
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o Briefly Noted: 

(Los Angeles) CNET reported today that Globalscape, which has been
described as an alternative to Napster, has temporarily shut down its
CuteMX file-sharing service because of legal concerns. "There is a lot of
confusion surrounding (this type of) technology, and we don't want to be
included in this controversy--particularly as a subsidiary of a publicly
traded company," said Globalscape president Sandra Poole-Christal.
Globalscape is a subsidiary of American TeleSource International, a
publicly traded company on the American Stock Exchange.
http://news.cnet.com/news//0-1005-200-2375170.html?tag=st.cn.sr.ne.1 

(West Hollywood) Soundbreak.com, a music web site, announced today that it
is registering about 10,000 new users every day. West Hollywood-based
Soundbreak.com, which is majority-owned by Pasadena-based incubator Acacia
Research Corporation, said its users spend an average of 43 minutes per
session on the site.
http://www.soundbreak.com

(Sunnyvale, CA) Oak Technology, Inc., a Sunnyvale-based software
developer, said it is currently developing a chip-based application that
will block the illegal reproduction of copyrighted materials. Company
officials said that its chip-based approach is less susceptible to hacking
or reverse engineering than other options.
http://www.oaktech.com

(New York) Universal Studios Home Video and New York-based Pseudo
Programs, an Internet-based entertainment company, today announced an
alliance to promote the home video release of "Beyond the Mat," which
examines pro wrestling. Under the deal, Pseudo will promote the video with
commercials, banners and buttons.
http://www.pseudo.com
http://www.universalstudios.com

(Hollywood, CA) Stickyflicks Studios, Inc., a Hollywood-based Internet
animation developer, today launched stickyflicks.com. David Burke and Eli
Balser, two veterans of the animation industry founded Stickyflicks Studio
in February. The company, which said it produces "adult-oriented"
animation, plans to produce up to 24 new titles each year.
Stickyflicks.com has received initial funding from Chris Anderson, head of
Imagine Media publishing network.
http://www.stickyflicks.com

(New York) Amid the controversy surrounding Napster, Medium4.com, Inc., a
New York-based Internet broadcasting company, and Viatech, Inc., a
Boston-based software developer, today announced the launch of Zeezer, a
Internet site for entertainment media downloads. "It is a legal Napster,"
said Dennis Oppenheimer, president of the Medium4Music.com Network. The
site is expected to launch in mid-August.
http://www.zeezer.com
http://www.medium4.com

(San Francisco, CA) Garageband.com, a San Francisco-based Internet music
company, and Flawless Records, headed by Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, today
announced a partnership to create a national talent search. The service,
called "Diamond In the Rough," is intended to find talented new bands
nationwide. The talent searches will be run in conjunction with Limp
Bizkit’s "Back to Basics Tour."
http://www.garageband.com
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