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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- October 21, 2002
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To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com
o Despite Stall In Senate, Small Webcasters Get Reprieve On Music Royalties
o Report: Universal Music Group May Trim Web Assets
o SeaView Video Technology Raises $1 Million in Private Placement
> Baker & Hostetler Legal Update
> Digital Media Wire Event: "iTV Visions" | NYC | Nov. 14
> Featured Event: Tablet PC Digital Publishing Event, M-Commerce Event
o Briefly Noted: NHL.com - video-on-demand, Sonicblue - ReplayTV 5000,
IBiquity Digital - Delphi, Samsung Electronics - Symbian, Mobile Games
Interoperability Forum, Mazingo - Telepictures Productions, The Games
Kitchen - Sega Mobile, "EverQuest: The Planes of Power," Microsoft -
Kazaa, TelevisionWithoutPity.com
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> Jobs: East Coast Sales Rep.
> Events
> Marketplace: DeskTop Author, Interest-Based Navigation
Full Classifieds located beneath "Briefly Noted" section below.
To post a Classified Ad:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/mainpostingpage.html
or contact David Peebler at david@digitalmediawire.com
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o Despite Stall In Senate, Small Webcasters Get Reprieve On Music Royalties
Washington -- Despite the U.S. Senate's failure to pass the Small
Webcaster Amendments Act (SWAA) of 2002, the recording industry and small
webcasters have reached an agreement that will temporarily exempt
webcasters from paying much of the royalties they owe for streaming music
online. SoundExchange, a record industry-funded service whose task it is
to collect and distribute streaming royalties to artists, announced late
Friday that it will exempt webcasters who would have qualified for the
royalty payment breaks under the SWAA from paying anything over the $500
minimum per year that became due on Sunday. SoundExchange said it expects
the Senate to pass the SWAA when it reconvenes after Election Day. "Given
the unfortunate fact that a lone Senator apparently held up the small
webcasters' bill, we felt it appropriate to offer this proposal," said
SoundExchange executive director John Simson. Many small webcasters said
that the original royalty rate set by the Librarian of Congress was
unfairly high and would cause them to go out of business. The new rate
under the proposed SWAA would switch fees paid from a per song, per
listener basis to a rate based on a percentage of the revenue a webcaster
brings in.
http://www.soundexchange.com/webcasters.cfm
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=1608131
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-962652.html?tag=cd_mh
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o Report: Universal Music Group May Trim Web Assets
Los Angeles -- Sources close to Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group
told Reuters on Monday the company is currently reviewing its Web
properties and may eliminate some of them, in line with the parent
company's desire to eliminate its massive debt load. "One of the things
that will be happening in the next few weeks is that Universal Music will
be coming in and figuring out how the music Web sites can be integrated
into the music company," an unidentified source told Reuters. Many of the
company's Web music offerings are held under Vivendi Universal Net USA --
such as MP3.com, RollingStone.com and EMusic. Universal also jointly owns
Pressplay, a digital music subscription service, with Sony Music.
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=1603267
http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/vu2/en/what_we_do/factsheet_internet.cfm
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o SeaView Video Technology Raises $1 Million in Private Placement
Tierra Verde, Fla. -- SeaView Video Technology, a developer of technology
that adapts power lines for transmitting video, audio voice and data, has
raised $1 million in a private placement from a group of unnamed
institutional investors. SeaView said that the deal includes terms for up
to another $4 million of investment. The company also said that it has
arranged financing to support purchase orders that it has received from
dealers and distributors. Florida-based SeaView also manufactures
underwater video cameras, lights and accessories for the marine,
commercial and consumer retail markets.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/021021/212391_1.html
http://www.seaview.com
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> Baker & Hostetler Legal Update:
A periodic report on pertinent legal issues delivered by the Washington,
D.C.-based law firm of Baker & Hostetler, LLP.
The Ninth Circuit's In re World Auxiliary Power Co. Opinion Has Important
Effect On How Interests In Copyrights Are Assessed And Perfected
In In re World Auxiliary Power Co., No. 00-16550 (09/11/2002), the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit considered the issue of whether
state law or federal law governs priority of security interests in
unregistered copyrights. This somewhat esoteric issue can nonetheless be
very important in assessing loan transactions, acquisition proposals or
investment opportunities that involve businesses whose most significant
assets may include copyrights, e.g., software development firms, film
studios and other media content businesses. In Auxiliary Power, the Court
concluded that Silicon Valley Bank perfected a security interest in the
unregistered copyrights by following the procedures in Article 9 of
California's Uniform Commercial Code. A subsequent "purchaser" of the
unregistered copyrights from a bankruptcy trustee failed to persuade the
Court that security interests in unregistered copyrights can only be
perfected by recording them with the U.S. Copyright Office. According to
the Court, the Copyright Office's recording system applies only to
copyrights that have been registered with the Copyright Office. As shown
in Auxiliary Power, this alternative-track recordation system can give
rise to complexities and unwanted "surprises" in assessing the value and
status of copyright assets.
The full article may be found at the link below:
http://www.bakerlaw.com/aboutus/news/copyrightsecurityinterests.asp
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EVENT -- DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE Presents...
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iTV Visions: Technology Transforming Entertainment
New York City | Thurs. November 14 | 1:30-7:30 PM
In association with the Interactive Television Alliance
Sponsors: Etronica | ITA | Filter Media | AIM
This half-day executive forum will present views on the future of
entertainment based on next generation interactive television technologies
emerging today. Thought leaders from leading edge companies that are
driving these technologies into the marketplace will gather to show how
entertainment is on the verge of yet another radical transformation.
For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events/itv_visions_111902.htm
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==================
FEATURED SECTION
==================
Featured Section posting at:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/featuredpostingpage.htm
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Briefly Noted:
(New York) The National Hockey League (NHL) on Monday announced it has
launched its first-ever subscription video-on-demand service on NHL.com,
utilizing Microsoft's Windows Media 9 delivery technology. The NHL will
offer its video-on-demand service for $4.95 per month or $29.95 for the
full season. In addition to searchable highlights of goals, saves and big
hits from the 2002-03 season, the service will also offer selected classic
games like the 1967, 1977 and 1985 Stanley Cup finals for $2.95 each, or
$1.95 for subscribers.
http://www.nhl.com
(Santa Clara, Calif.) Consumer electronics firm Sonicblue on Monday
introduced an upgrade to its controversial ReplayTV personal video
recorder, the ReplayTV 5000 series. A number of big networks and studios
are suing the company over the device's ability to skip commercials and
share programs over the Internet. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sonicblue's
new product continues to offer these features, in addition to the new
ability to stream programming to other ReplayTV devices within the home.
The basic ReplayTV 5040 offers 40 hours of recording capacity for $299
while a 320-hour capacity version will be sold for $899.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/021021/210280_1.html
http://www.replaytv.com
(Detroit) IBiquity Digital, a developer of digital radio broadcasting
technology, announced on Monday that consumer electronics firm Delphi has
licensed the company's HD Radio technology, and will make car stereo
receivers equipped with digital radio compatibility available to
automakers beginning in 2004. Maryland-based IBiquity's technology, which
enables radio stations to bundle a digital signal alongside their analog
signals, was recently approved for the market by the FCC.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/021021/phm021_1.html
http://www.delphi.com
http://www.ibiquity.com
(London) Cell phone maker Samsung Electronics said on Monday that it has
licensed the Symbian mobile operating system -- also used by rivals Nokia,
Motorola, Siemens and SonyEricsson -- for use in the company's smartphones
for 2.5G and 3G wireless networks. Financial terms of the deal were not
disclosed. Samsung's first Symbian OS product will be a global
data-enabled phone featuring a user interface that Samsung has licensed
from Nokia. London-based Symbian said that licensees of its operating
system account for over 80 percent of worldwide mobile phone sales.
http://www.symbian.com/press-office/2002/pr021021.html
http://www.samsungelectronics.com
(Barcelona) The Mobile Games Interoperability Forum (MGIF), an industry
trade group founded by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens, on Monday
released its v1.0 specifications, "for a basic set of common, reusable
functionality in the form of programming APIs that are among the core
functionalities for server-based mobile games." The MGIF, whose members
also include THQ, Konami, Codetoys and Digital Bridges, said its goals
include reducing developer costs through standardizing access to core game
services for server-based applications, as well as reducing the cost of
ownership and delivery of games for mobile operators and service
providers.
http://www.mgif.org
(San Francisco) Mazingo, a provider of digital video entertainment
programming for mobile devices, announced on Monday an agreement with
Telepictures Productions to distribute video highlights from its
newsmagazines "Extra" and "Celebrity Justice" to PDA users. San
Francisco-based Mazingo's digital video subscription service is available
for $14.95 per month.
http://www.mazingo.net
(Edinburgh, Scotland) The Games Kitchen, a developer of games for mobile
devices, said on Monday that it has created "Sega Pet TV" through an
agreement with Sega Mobile. Tha game allows Java-enabled phone owners to
adopt a pet ranging from cats and dogs to lions, snakes and aliens on
their phone and then "groom it for super stardom in its own TV show."
http://www.gameskitchen.com
http://www.us.segamobile.com
(San Diego) Sony Online Entertainment announced on Monday that an
expansion pack to its popular massively multiplayer online roleplaying
game "EverQuest" will go on sale tomorrow. "EverQuest: The Planes of
Power" is targeted at high-level players of the game and adds hundreds of
new weapons, spells and creatures to the online game.
http://www.planesofpower.com
(Los Angeles) The Los Angeles Times on Monday reported on Microsoft's
surprising use of rogue file-sharing service Kazaa to promote its Windows
Media 9 audio and video player software. While most of the major movie
studios and record labels have sued Kazaa's operator, Sharman Networks,
for copyright infringement, The Times reports that Microsoft has paid
Altnet -- a secure service that piggybacks on Kazaa -- an undisclosed sum
to distribute promotional videos for Tony Hawk's Boom Boom HuckJam, as
well as Lion's Gate Entertainment's film "The Rules of Attraction" on
Kazaa. "This smacks of a government wanting to do legitimate business with
a known drug dealer.... I'm as surprised at Microsoft wanting to work with
Kazaa as Bertelsmann wanting to work with Napster," GartnerG2 analyst P.J.
McNealy told The Times.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-micro21oct21004425,0,5120889.story?
coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dtechnology
http://www.altnet.com
(New York) The New York Times Magazine on Sunday featured an article on
the effect that some TV show fan sites are having on the writers and
producers of the shows which they discuss. In particular, the article
discusses TelevisionWithoutPity.com, a site that has drawn personal
attention from "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/20/magazine/20INTERACTIVE.html
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com
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===================
CLASSIFIEDS - JOBS
===================
To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobpostingpage.htm
East Coast Sales Rep - Imaging and Music Software Firm
Imaging and music software firm is seeking an independent, East Coast
sales representative. We have great products - you have strong
relationships with camera and computer hardware manufacturers and
marketers. Significant OEM experience strongly preferred. Position offers
a retainer and generous commissions. Interested parties should forward
their resume to David McKie at: david@simplestar.com
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====================
CLASSIFIEDS - EVENTS
====================
To Post Events: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/eventpostingpage.htm
_____________________________________________
==========================
CLASSIFIEDS - MARKETPLACE
==========================
To Post Marketplace:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/marketplacepostingpage.htm
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Copyright 2002 Digital Media Wire, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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