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| =================================================== DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- October 18, 2000 =================================================== To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com o MP3.com To Pay Music Publishers $30 Million For 1 Million Songs o Inside.com: Napster Could Fix Its Technology To Prevent Pirates o RMI.NET To Test Multiple-Company Cable Access For Time Warner o Frankfurt Book Fair Offers $100,000 E-Book Prize o AudioSoft Passes ASCAP Accuracy Test For Digital Music Tracking o Loudeye Signs Licensing Agreement With Warner Music Group o Briefly Noted: Excite@Home - NET-36, Blockbuster - InterTrust, StreamSearch - ICTV, Kick.com, Stan Lee Media, Reciprocal, Musicmusicmusic, How2TV _____________________________________________ o MP3.com To Pay Music Publishers $30 Million For 1 Million Songs San Diego -- MP3.com announced on Wednesday a licensing agreement with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) that will allow the company to offer over 1 million copyrighted songs to users of its My.MP3.com "digital locker" service. San Diego-based MP3.com will pay the group of 25,000 music publishers $30 million for the three-year deal. Once fully approved, the deal will end the NMPA's pending lawsuit against the company for copyright infringement. MP3.com's My.MP3.com service allows users to stream music from an online digital locker to any computer or device they choose without incurring a per-listen charge, provided that they can prove they have already purchased the music on CD. Lawmakers recently introduced a bill in Congress, called the Music Owners' Listening Rights Act of 2000, which would ensure the legality of My.MP3.com. http://pr.mp3.com/pr/197.html _____________________________________________ o Inside.com: Napster Could Fix Its Technology To Prevent Pirates New York -- According to numerous experts in the field, it could be possible for Napster to adopt technology into its music file trading service that would prevent the swapping of copyrighted songs, Inside.com reported on Wednesday. Judges in the trial between Napster and the Recording Industry Association of America have asserted that because of the volume of song files being traded, it would be physically impossible to screen out copyright infringing files. Appellate court Judge Robert Beezer has been often quoted for having said in trial, "How in the world are they expected to have knowledge of what's coming off some kid's computer in Hackensack, N.J., for transmission to Guam?" However, many experts argue that it is possible to screen the Napster network for particular files and prevent their transfer. The article provides backing for this opinion from companies such as NetPD, which culled data for Metallica's lawsuit against the company; Unisys, a database hardware manufacturer; and White Cross Systems, another database developer. The article suggests that Napster has not adopted such technology because far fewer people would be interested in using the service if it did not feature free, more popular copyrighted songs. http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,11683_9_12_1,00.html _____________________________________________ o RMI.NET To Test Multiple-Company Cable Access For Time Warner Denver -- RMI.NET, an Internet service provider (ISP) for broadband connections, announced on Wednesday that it has been chosen by Time Warner to help test the feasibility of having multiple companies use the same cable lines to provide consumers with high-speed Internet access. The issue is a key factor in the FTC and FCC's approval of the merger between Time Warner and America Online. The commissions and competitors have said that a merged AOL Time Warner would have too much control over high-speed Internet access through cable lines. In order to win approval for the merger, the company must provide open access to its cable lines to competing Internet service providers (ISPs) to provide services as well. "We are eager to help demonstrate that cable system operators and Internet service providers can offer broadband Internet service over the same networks in an environment of healthy competition," said Douglas H. Hanson, chairman and CEO of Denver-based RMI.NET. The company was also chosen to participate in a similar trial being conducted by AT&T. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001018/co_rmi_net.html http://www.rmi.net _____________________________________________ o Frankfurt Book Fair Offers $100,000 E-Book Prize Frankfurt, Germany -- The Frankfurt Book Fair, considered the world's largest convention for the publishing industry, is offering a $100,000 prize this year for the best title published originally as an e-book. The event is also offering $10,000 prizes for the best original e-books in fiction and non-fiction, and prizes for books originally printed and then converted into electronic form. The event will also present the Technology Achievement Award, for the advancement and implementation of e-book technologies and features. "This event captures the truly international quality of electronic reading and demonstrates that this is a worldwide phenomenon," said Roxanna Frost, president and executive director of the International eBook Award Foundation. "The Grand Prize is one of the largest sums given for a publishing award. We feel this will encourage the highest standards and innovation." The awards will be presented on October 20 during a ceremony at the Frankfurt Opera House. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/527539l.htm http://www.frankfurt-book-fair.com _____________________________________________ o AudioSoft Passes ASCAP Accuracy Test For Digital Music Tracking San Francisco -- AudioSoft, a developer of digital copyright tracking technology, announced on Wednesday that its has passed accuracy testing by music publishing company ASCAP, and that the two companies will expand their partnership to track music usage on the Internet. San Francisco-based AudioSoft provides online tracking services so that music publishers and musicians can track the use of their songs on the Internet, and so that webcasters and online music retailers get accurate tracking reports with which to make royalty payments. The tests were conducted using both Microsoft's Windows Media Player and RealNetworks' RealPlayer, the two most widely used players for streaming digital music. http://www.audiosoft.com http://www.ascap.com _____________________________________________ o Loudeye Signs Licensing Agreement With Warner Music Group Seattle -- Loudeye Technologies, a provider of digital media storage technology, announced on Wednesday that it has signed a licensing agreement with Warner Music Group. Under the deal, Loudeye will encode and store Warner Music-controlled recordings and music videos in digital form, and deliver them to companies who have paid to license the works from Warner. Seattle-based Loudeye will provide streams of Warner's music in multiple formats and provide for different computer connection speeds. The company has similar deals to provide digital streaming with Universal Music Group, BMG, Sony and EMI-Capitol. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001018/wa_loudeye.html http://www.loudeye.com http://music.warnerbros.com _____________________________________________ o Briefly Noted: (Greenwich, CT) Broadband Internet access provider Excite@Home has announced a partnership with NET-36, a provider of satellite content delivery over the Internet. Under the deal, Excite@Home will distribute its broadband content over NET-36's satellite distribution network, which the company says delivers an average speed for streamed content of 500 kbps. Redwood City-based NET-36 is a division of PanAmSat, which owns a network of commercial satellites. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001017/ct_net_36__2.html http://www.net-36.com http://www.excite.com (Dallas) Blockbuster Inc. announced on Wednesday that it will use technology from Santa Clara-based InterTrust, a provider of digital rights management, to provide security for its planned online movies on demand service. Movies will be distributed through Enron's global broadband network. Blockbuster said the service will begin testing in markets by the end of this year, and will be released sometime late next year. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001018/tx_blockbu_2.html http://www.intertrust.com (Santa Clara, Calif.) StreamSearch, an aggregator and distributor of streaming media, announced on Wednesday a partnership with ICTV, a company that provides broadband content delivery to set-top boxes for interactive digital television. Santa Clara-based StreamSearch.com is a portal containing links to streaming entertainment content on the Internet. Under the deal, StreamSearch will provide a "TV-ready" version of its site to ICTV, which markets its services to digital television developers such as Cox, Liberty Digital and OpenTV. http://www.streamsearch.com http://www.ictv.com (San Francisco) Kick.com, a developer of software for digital music, announced on Wednesday the release of its Music Companion software. Once downloaded, the software works any time a user's computer opens a music player program, and provides album art, news, concert information, related artist links and online buying links for songs played. San Francisco-based Kick.com's software works with most media players, including Windows Media, RealJukebox and Winamp. http://www3.kick.com/company/pressroom/releases/kick_press_release_0003.jsp (Buenos Aires) Stan Lee Media, an online animation provider, announced on Wednesday that it has made its content available to Latin American users at stanleeweb.com for Spanish-speakers, and stanlee.com.br for Portuguese-speakers. LA-based Stan Lee Media also said that it will premiere television programs of its animation programming on the Latin American Canal Plus and Fox Kids Latin America. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001018/stan_lee_m.html http://www.stanlee.net http://www.stanleeweb.com http://www.stanlee.com.br (New York) Reciprocal, a provider of digital rights management for online media, announced on Wednesday the opening of its European operations. New York-based Reciprocal's technology protects and controls access to digital content, so that it can be distributed to users without the content owner risking a loss of copyright control. http://www.reciprocal.com (New York) Musicmusicmusic Inc., a provider of licensed music and news, announced on Wednesday the launch of KidsOwnRadio.com. The site will feature games, stories, maps, crafts, news and music ranging from lullabies to Raffi. http://www.kidsownradio.com (Los Angeles) How2TV, a B2B multimedia content provider, announced that it has named Heiro R. Arcangeli, Jr. as its new president and CEO. Arcangeli previously worked as vice president and general manager of the consumer products division of Yamaha Corp. of America. http://www.how2tv.com ___________________ To subscribe, go to: http://www.digitalmediawire.com Questions or comments? Send email to: mark@digitalmediawire.com News tips, press releases. Send email to: editorial@digitalmediawire.com |