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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- August 17, 2000
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o Judge Blocks Site From Printing DVD Code
o Napster To File Initial Arguments With Appeals Court on Friday
o Gartner Group: Music Industry Should Embrace Single-Song Purchases
o Streamedia.Net Retains Investment Bank To Examine Options
o Briefly Noted: Entertainment Online 2000, Walkmans – MP3,
ForeignTVSpain.com, ClearWorks.net – Eagle Wireless,
Sunhawk.com – Naxos Group, Hiwire – DiscJockey.com,
HighRivals.com, FansRULE.com – The Backstage Café,
Champions for Families, The Humor Network, Intertops.com –
"Survivor"
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o Judge Blocks Site From Printing DVD Code
New York -- In a victory for the film industry, Federal Judge Lewis
Kaplanv ruled today that the publisher of a hacker web site is barred from
publishing a program that allows DVD movies to be unlocked for free. After
issuing a preliminary injunction earlier in the year, Judge Lewis ordered
Eric Corley, the publisher of 2600.com, to permanently refrain from
publishing the computer code. The lawsuit against Corley and 2600.com was
brought by leading movie studios. "Today's landmark decision nailed down
an indispensable Constitutional and Congressional truth: It's wrong to
help others steal creative works," said Jack Valenti, CEO of the Motion
Picture Association of America. 2600.com criticized the court's decision
today, but said that it was not surprised by the outcome. After the ruling
was announced today, a headline on the site read: "2600 Trial Verdict: Not
Good." The judge’s ruling also bars 2600.com from providing links to other
web sites that print the DVD code.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000817/tc/hacker_dvd_dc_3.html
http://www.2600.com/
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o Napster To File Initial Arguments With Appeals Court on Friday
San Francisco – On Friday, attorneys for file-sharing service Napster are
expected to file initial arguments in their appeal of a judge’s order that
would shut down the popular file-sharing service. Napster's lawyer is
David Boies, who was the lead prosecutor for the Justice Department in its
anti-trust case against Microsoft. The filings have cast new attention on
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled on a number of critical
technology legal issues in recent years. "The decision on Napster could
represent the most important of the technology-related rulings from the
San Francisco-based circuit and, like its recent groundbreaking decisions
on encryption, Internet access and reverse engineering, have broad
implications for a quickly evolving industry," the Associated Press
reported today.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000817/tc/napster_court_1.html
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o Gartner Group: Music Industry Should Embrace Single-Song Purchases
San Jose – The Gartner Group, an Internet research company, is urging the
music industry to adopt a new digital distribution model based on
single-song purchases over the Internet. In a recently released report --
called "Digital Music Distribution: Which Model(s) Will Succeed?" -- the
Gartner Group argues that record companies must utilize effective Digital
Rights Management (DRM). The research group also calls on the record
companies to form their own music portals, or sign distribution licenses
with as many Internet music distributors as possible. "Digital
distribution models will morph through several iterations. The cog behind
each of the models is the content keepers -- the record labels," said P.J.
McNealy, senior industry analyst for Gartner's e-Business Services group.
"With technological developments, such as MP3 file formats, consumers are
becoming more familiar with digital music formats and 'ripping' CDs. Many
of these consumers don't want a full album but instead are looking for
three to four tracks from a CD."
http://gartner3.gartnerweb.com/public/static/aboutgg/pressrel/pr20000817b.html
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o Streamedia.Net Retains Investment Bank to Pursue Options
New York -- After seeing its stock price drop from a high of $8.25 in the
spring to $1.25 on Thursday, Streamedia.Net, a digital media services
company and Internet broadcaster, today announced that it has retained
Agile Equity to serve as a strategic investment advisor to the company.
Agile Equity is an investment banking firm specializing in mergers &
acquisitions, strategic investments and advisory services. "Since our IPO
seven months ago, we have been approached by a sizeable number of
companies about strategic investments, partnerships and alliances, and
welcome Agile Equity to help us over the next months and years find good
fits for the continued expansion," said James D. Rupp, CEO of New
York-based Streamedia.Net.
http://www.streamedia.net/
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o Briefly Noted:
(New York) A number of top digital media executives are scheduled to
discuss digital entertainment branding and distribution at the
Entertainment Online 2000 conference that will be held in New York City on
October 17-18. Speakers at the conference will include executives from
NBC, Universal, USA Networks, New Line Cinema, Replay TV, AT&T, Showtime
Networks, American Movie Classics, iXL, and other media companies.
http://www.EntertainmentOnline2000.com
(San Francisco) CNet reported today that Sony is trying to launch a new
line of Walkmans for MP3 files. "Sony's groundbreaking portable music
player, a cultural mainstay of the 1980s, has languished in the past
decade, as CDs and other digital music formats have displaced cassette
tapes," the article said. The article noted that the Walkman still has
tremendous brand recognition "so the electronics giant plans to resurrect
the name for all of its portable music players, starting later this year
with a new line of MP3 Walkmans."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-2549779.html?tag=st.ne.1002.srchres.ni
(New York) Medium4.com, a developer of Internet television channels,
announced the launch of a new service called ForeignTVSpain.com. The site
will provide streaming video and audio of news, travel and cultural
activities in Spain.
http://www.ForeignTVSpain.com
(Houston) Houston-based ClearWorks.net, a publicly traded broadband and
video-on-demand company, announced today that its pending merger with
Eagle Wireless International will provide the combined company with an
additional $100 million in annual sales. The companies said the increased
revenues will come from the sale of Eagle's set-top boxes and other
multimedia accessories to ClearWork.net customers.
http://www.ClearWorks.net
http://www.eglw.com
(Seattle) Sunhawk.com, a developer of digital rights management tools,
today announced that it will license its software to the Naxos Group, a
major classical music recording company. Under the agreement, consumers
will be able to purchase digital sheet music accompanied by a Naxos
recording of the work.
http://www.naxos.com
http://www.sunhawk.com/
(Los Angeles) Los Angeles-based Hiwire Inc., a provider of advertising
services to the streaming media industry, today announced that it will
provide advertisements to Massachusetts-based DiscJockey.com, an Internet
radio network. "With Hiwire's ability to deliver ads based on gender, age
and location, every DiscJockey.com listener will hear a specially targeted
spot during station breaks," said Warren Schlichting, CEO of Hiwire.
http://www.discjockey.com/
http://www.hiwire.com/
(Seattle) Seattle-based Rivals.com, a web network for sports information,
announced the launch of RivalsHigh.com, a web site with links to over 80
web sites that cover high school sports.
http://www.rivals.com/
(Los Angeles) FansRULE.com, a "fan portal" for the entertainment industry,
said it has signed a two-year deal with agent Ian Copeland to webcast live
celebrity interviews from the Backstage Cafe in Beverly Hills. The
Backstage Cafe is principally owned by Copeland.
http://www.fansrule.com
(New York) Champions for Families, an Internet company that is developing
an online exchange for celebrity endorsements, announced that it has
signed a letter of intent to receive $15 million in investment capital.
The investment commitment is from MetaIncubation.com, a New York-based
incubator. Florida-based Champions For Families said it has 350
celebrities who have agreed to use the exchange. Former NBA player Gus
Williams, who played for the Seattle Sonics, is a co-founder of the
company.
http://www.championsforfamilies.com/
(New York) The Humor Network, a company that runs a daily joke email
service, said today that it has a daily subscriber base of over 1.7
million. In addition to its main Joke-Of-The-Day.com service, the company
also runs CollegeJokes.com, SportsJokes.com, FarmJokes.com,
Kids-Jokes.com, Teen-Jokes.com, HumorNetwork.com and PoliticalJokes.org.
http://www.joke-of-the-day.com/
(St. John’s, Antigua) Intertops.com, an Internet sports betting site, said
that it is accepting bets on who will be the sole survivor of the CBS
television show "Survivor." The company said over 12,000 people have bet a
total of $400,000 on the outcome of the show.
http://www.intertops.com/
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