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Main Stories
o Bill Would Mandate "John Doe" Lawsuits for Identities of File-Swappers
o Grokster, Morpheus File Briefs in RIAA Appeal of Landmark P2P Ruling
o SEC Moves to Block Vivendi CEO Messier's "Golden Parachute" Payment
o Sony to Release $99 Hard Drive for PlayStation 2 in March
o Senate Passes Resolution to Overturn New FCC Media Ownership Rules
o House Votes to Permanently Ban Taxes on Internet Access
o Senate Hearing to Address RIAA Lawsuits Against Alleged P2P Infringers
o AOL Time Warner to Officially Drop "AOL" from Corporate Name

o Briefly Noted: Capcom Entertainment - CEO resignation, Samsung - Napster 2.0, Tapwave - Zodiac, MLB.com - postseason webcasts, Rock-Ola - Ecast, Sharman Networks - 301 Records, "PlayStation 2 Road to Voodoo," Namco - Hip Interactive, THQ - LEGO Interactive - "Bionicle"

Washington -- Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) on Tuesday introduced legislation that would force content owners to file a "John Doe" lawsuit in order to obtain the identities of believed copyright infringers, instead of using the current streamlined subpoena process that has drawn criticism over privacy concerns. The "Consumers, Schools, and Libraries Digital Rights Management Awareness Act of 2003" is partly a response to the recording industry's recent filing of hundreds of lawsuits against alleged music file-swappers whose identities it gained through the current subpoena process, authorized in a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). "There are no checks, no balances, and the alleged pirate has no opportunity to defend themselves," said Brownback, at a Senate hearing Tuesday. "My colleagues, this issue is about privacy, not piracy." The Recording Industry Association of America responded to the bill's introduction in a statement. "The DMCA was a carefully crafted compromise. Multibillion-dollar ISPs like Verizon fought for and won liability immunity for the rampant piracy on their networks. In exchange, they were obligated to help copyright holders identify individual pirates."
http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.1621:  http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60461,00.html
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o Grokster, Morpheus File Briefs in RIAA Appeal of Landmark P2P Ruling

Los Angeles -- Two file-sharing services that won a landmark court ruling placing the burden of copyright infringement with individual users on Wednesday filed briefs in an appeal of that ruling brought by the music and movie industries. The original ruling said that Grokster and Streamcast Networks, which operates Morpheus, were not guilty of copyright infringement -- starkly contrasting the case against Napster, which was found guilty of copyright infringement. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) filed their appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in August; Grokster and Streamcast Networks filed their response on Wednesday. "Instead of asking the court to deputize every technology vendor to enforce their copyrights for them, they should license the technology at a fair price," Grokster president Wayne Rosso told Reuters. "Five bucks a month from each of 60 million filesharers beats the hell out of filing a federal case to get $2,000 from a 12-year-old girl." http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=3461990 
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o SEC Moves to Block Vivendi CEO Messier's "Golden Parachute" Payment

Paris -- Just one day after a New York court ordered Vivendi Universal to pay former CEO Jean-Marie Messier $23.3 million, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved to stop the so-called "golden parachute" payment. The SEC said that its staff is currently investigating "possible violations of the federal securities laws by Vivendi and its directors, officers, partners, controlling persons, agents or employees." Messier should not receive his pay-off whilst he is currently under investigation, the SEC argued. The move marks one of the first occasions that the SEC has used powers recently granted by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which seeks to help wronged investors to recoup their losses after financial fraud.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q25B22CE5
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o Sony to Release $99 Hard Drive for PlayStation 2 in March

San Francisco -- Sony Computer Entertainment America announced on Wednesday plans to release a $99, 40GB Hard Drive accessory for its PlayStation 2 video game console in March 2004. The device is designed to improve functionality and speed of gameplay by storing information on the drive instead of game discs, and will come pre-loaded with the anticipated Square Enix massively multiplayer online title, "Final Fantasy XI." In addition to game content, the Hard Drive will come loaded with product and game demos, and a customized media player that will enable users to store and playback MP3s and CDs, and display and edit digital photos. Sony said upcoming titles including "SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs" and "Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain" will utilize the storage capacity of the Hard Drive.
http://us.playstation.com
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o Senate Passes Resolution to Overturn New FCC Media Ownership Rules

Washington -- The U.S. Senate has voted to overturn a set of new rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which would relax media ownership rules and allow large media companies to control larger percentages of the media outlets in U.S. markets. Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who sponsored the resolution to overturn the new FCC rules, called them "a massive cave-in to corporate interests at the expense of the public interest." The vote in the Senate failed to garner the two-thirds vote needed to override a potential veto from the White House; the resolution will now move to the House for debate.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:s.j.res.00017:  http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-238956A1.doc  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21792-2003Sep16.html
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o House Votes to Permanently Ban Taxes on Internet Access

Washington -- The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to permanently extend a moratorium that prohibits state and local governments from taxing Internet access. The five-year-old moratorium was set to expire in November. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA), also will plug loop holes that have allowed 13 states to tax some forms of Internet access and 10 others to continue taxing access through an exemption. Lawmakers have supported the bill as a way to keep Internet access affordable. The bill now goes to the Senate. In July, a Senate committee approved a very similar bill.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:H.R.49:
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o Senate Hearing to Address RIAA Lawsuits Against Alleged P2P Infringers

Washington -- The U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations announced that it will hold a hearing on Sept. 30 to debate whether the recording industry's current tack of subpoenaing the identities of alleged music file-swappers and suing them for copyright infringement is a reasonable solution. The hearing will also address the impact of peer-to-peer networks on the recording industry, and new business models. "I want to seek balanced solutions that preserve individual privacy, protect industry copyrights, and look to a future in which the music and motion picture industries are ahead of the digital curve in creating new customers instead of alienating them," said Coleman.
http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/psistate.htm
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o AOL Time Warner to Officially Drop "AOL" from Corporate Name

Dulles, Va. -- Nearly three years after the $112 billion merger that created the company, AOL Time Warner plans to officially remove the "AOL" from its corporate name with a board vote on Thursday, The Washington Post reported. Sources close to the board said that the move, which will include a new corporate logo and a return to Time Warner's old "TWX" ticker symbol, is strongly supported by Richard Parsons, the company's chairman and CEO, who plans to quickly implement the change. The media giant is attempting to distance itself from the recent troubles at America Online, which has been losing subscribers to faster broadband connections and is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Post reports that the name change is not a precursor to a spinoff or sale of AOL.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21766-2003Sep16.html


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(Sunnyvale, Calif.) The president and CEO of game developer Capcom Entertainment has resigned his position, GameDaily.com reported. William Gardner, who has been with the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based U.S. unit of the Japanese video game company for seven years, will leave his post at the end of the month. "Certainly we want to find the right person and his successor will be named as soon as we find that individual," a Capcom spokesperson told GameDaily.
http://www.gamedaily.com 
http://www.capcom.com

(New York) Consumer electronics firm Samsung announced that it plans to release a line of digital music players in conjunction with the holiday re-launch of Napster 2.0 by its new owner, Roxio. The co-branded devices will be labeled as "Napster compatible" when they are released later this year.
http://www.napster.com 
http://www.samsung.com

(Mountain View, Calif.) Tapwave, a developer of mobile entertainment products, on Wednesday announced the upcoming release of its Zodiac mobile entertainment console. The Palm OS-based device, which will go on sale next month for $299 (32MB internal RAM) and $399 (128MB internal RAM), is primarily a video game handheld, but will also feature an MP3 player, portable video player and digital photo viewer. Games available for the device will include Activision's "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4," id Software's "DOOM II," Midway's "SpyHunter," and "Duke Nukem Mobile."
http://www.tapwave.com

(New York) MLB.com, the website for Major League Baseball, announced on Wednesday that it will offer live video webcasts of all postseason games to anyone residing or traveling outside the U.S. The postseason webcast package is available for $14.95 or $2.95 per game. Due to broadcast restrictions, residents of the U.S., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Japan will blocked from viewing the webcasts.
http://www.mlb.com

(Las Vegas) Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corp., a maker of traditional music jukeboxes, announced on Wednesday the release of its E-Rock jukebox, a cash- and credit card-operated digital jukebox powered by technology from San Francisco-based Ecast. The device will use the Ecast Location Based Broadband Network each month to upload new digital tracks to add to the jukebox's 130,000-title catalog of songs from all five majors and a number of independent labels.
http://www.rock-ola.com 
http://www.ecastinc.com

(Sydney, Australia) Sharman Networks, distributor of the Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing application, announced on Wednesday that Australian independent recording label 301 Records will promote its band The Honey Palace through Altnet, a secure file-sharing network that piggybacks on Kazaa. Tracks from the band will be available on Altnet for 25 cents each.
http://www.kazaa.com 
http://www.altnet.com 
http://www.301.com.au

(Foster City, Calif.) Sony Computer Entertainment America announced on Wednesday its title sponsorship of "PlayStation 2 Road to Voodoo," a 21-city U.S. tour featuring recording artists Fuel, Smile Empty Soul, and DJ Swamp.
http://www.voodoomusicfest.com

(San Jose, Calif.) Namco Hometek, the U.S. unit of the Japanese video game developer, announced on Wednesday an extended agreement with game developer Hip Interactive, to bring additional Namco titles to the PC platform. Canada-based Hip Interactive will develop PC versions of Namco's "kill.switch," "Extreme Force: Grant City Anti-Crime" and "Pac-Man World 2" for release in North America and Europe in 2004. Under a previous agreement, Namco will release Hip's version of "Dead to Rights" for PC this fall.
http://www.namco.com 
http://www.hipinteractive.com

(Calabasas Hills, Calif.) Game developer THQ on Wednesday shipped its "Bionicle" title for Game Boy Advance, based on its multi-title exclusive publishing agreement with LEGO Interactive. The release coincides with the DVD release of the digitally-animated movie, "Bionicle: Mask of Light."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030917/175339_1.html 
http://www.lego.com/bionicle

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