Main Stories
o Top Officials from Dulles-Based AOL Subpoenaed by SEC
o Reuters: EMI Close to License Deal With Wippit Online Music Service
o Pop-Up Ad King, Wireless Camera Seller X10 Files for Bankruptcy
o Disney Launches Prepaid Cards for Online Content With Wal-Mart
o Secure CD Burning Software Firm Immediatek Acquires Incanta

o Briefly Noted: Clear Channel's Instant Live - Newbury Comics, Bitstream, Shockwave.com - Wal-Mart prepaid content cards, AOL@School, Flagship Studios, Airborne Entertainment - Buzztime Entertainment, Sonic Solutions, Fandango - "Matrix Revolutions," Gigex, Minidrives, Malcom McLaren - "chip music"

Dulles, Va. -- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued subpoenas to several top company officials, including Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons and AOL founder Steve Case, The Washington Post reported. The subpoenas are part of the government's continuing probe into AOL's finances, specifically relating to $400 million in revenue that the company booked with German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The SEC believes that AOL overstated advertising revenue from the deals. Separately, in its quarterly filing with the SEC, AOL said that it had 24.7 million subscribers as of September 30, down from 26.7 million the previous year. The company said that it lost about 688,000 subscribers in the most recent quarter, alone.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?V2D252D46
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o Reuters: EMI Close to License Deal With Wippit Online Music Service

London -- Major record label EMI is close to negotiating a deal to license its songs to Wippit.com, an online service that offers music downloads via both peer-to-peer and centralized server technologies, sources close to the deal told Reuters. Wippit.com currently features 60,000 tracks from independent labels including V2 and Telstar, through a subscription service that offers unlimited downloads for a single, annual fee. Sources told Reuters that EMI may offer as many as 100,000 songs from its catalog on Wippit in the coming weeks.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?M21D21056 
http://www.emigroup.com 
http://www.wippit.com
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o Pop-Up Ad King, Wireless Camera Seller X10 Files for Bankruptcy

San Francisco -- X10 Wireless Technology, the seller of miniature wireless video cameras that launched one of the most massive pop-up ad campaigns ever on the Internet, has filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington. CNET News.com reported that X10 this week was ordered to pay $4.3 million in damages to a company, Advertisement Banners.com, which sued X10 for using its technology that serves "pop-under" ads without authorization. Kent, Wash.-based X10 said its assets were between $1 million and $10 million, and that it owed creditors between $10 million and $50 million.
http://news.com.com/2100-1014_3-5095260.html 
http://www.x10.com
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o Disney Launches Prepaid Cards for Online Content With Wal-Mart

North Hollywood, Calif. -- Disney Online on Thursday launched a line of prepaid cards that will be sold at Wal-Mart and offer limited subscriptions to two of its online sites for kids, ToonTown Online and Disney's Blast. The cards are supported by AT&T PrePaid Web Cents technology, which provides a secure payment alternative for online content. The cards will cost $9.94 for a one-month subscription, with longer membership packages available at reduced rates. Wal-Mart will activate the cards at the point of sale, whereupon users can access online content by entering a serial and PIN number on the card.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031023/235192_1.html 
http://www.disneyblast.com 
http://www.toontown.com
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o Secure CD Burning Software Firm Immediatek Acquires Incanta

Richardson, Texas -- Immediatek, a provider of secure CD burning and other copy-protection technologies, announced on Thursday that it is acquiring the assets of Georgia-based Incanta, a provider of secure content delivery technology for broadband service providers. Financial details of the all-stock transaction were not disclosed. Texas-based Immediatek said it is acquiring the assets, which include a multi-format media player, from Incanta co-founder and CTO John Brothers, who bought the assets out of bankruptcy earlier this year. "We are planning to deploy our Secure Burning Kernel as a plug-in which will initially be used in the Incanta player, but will also work with other leading media players," said Immediatek CEO Zach Bair. "The plug-in will allow secure burning directly from a playlist, and will add an extra layer of protection for artists, labels and content providers, but it will still allow maximum playability and limited legal file-sharing."
http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/031022/46894.html 
http://www.incanta.net 
http://www.immediatek.com

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(Boston) Concert promotions and radio giant Clear Channel on Thursday announced a partnership with Boston-area music retailer Newbury Comics to provide greater distribution for its Instant Live CDs, which are recorded during performances and sold to concertgoers immediately after a show. Under the terms, Newbury Comics will sell Instant Live CDs wholesale to other retailers through its online wholesale distribution company, Toothface Distribution.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031023/235476_1.html 
http://www.newbury.com 
http://www.toothface.com 
http://www.instantliveconcerts.com

(Cambridge, Mass.) Bitstream, a developer of digital font technology, has announced the launch of its new wireless Web browsing technology for cell phones. The new technology uses a server infrastructure combined with a small piece of client code on the handheld device. The company said that the server converts web content into a compact format and sends it to the client on the handheld device, "making fast and full-featured wireless web browsing possible even with the wireless industry's current slow data speeds."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031022/225046_1.html 
http://www.bitstream.com

(San Francisco) Online games provider Shockwave.com announced on Thursday that it has begun selling prepaid cards that offer access to its subscription games site, Game Blast, at Wal-Mart locations nationwide. The prepaid cards, which use AT&T PrePaid Web Cents technology, will offer two months of GameBlast service for $14.95 or six months of service for $29.95. San Francisco-based Shockwave.com's Game Blast offers premium games including action, sports, and strategy titles, as well as a large monthly collection of jigsaw puzzles.
http://www.shockwave.com

(Dulles, Va.) America Online announced on Thursday that it has added two new content providers to AOL@School, the company's free online learning service. Users now have access to customized content and special features from Discovery Channel School, the education service of Discovery Communications, Inc., and Virtual Job Shadow.com, a provider of multimedia career exploration tools for students, educators and employees.
http://media.aoltimewarner.com/media/press_view.cfm?release_num=55253474
http://www.aolatschool.com

(San Francisco) A group of game developers who created the 13 million unit-selling "Diablo" massively multiplayer PC title at Vivendi's Blizzard Entertainment on Thursday announced the launch of their new game development company, Flagship Studios. The firm was founded by former Blizzard team members David Brevik, Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, Bill Roper and Kenneth Williams.
http://www.flagshipstudios.com

(Las Vegas) Wireless entertainment publisher Airborne Entertainment announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Buzztime Entertainment, a provider of wireless trivia game technology used in bars and restaurants, to port Buzztime's trivia game to cell phones via wireless platforms including BREW and J2ME. Buzztime will receive a guaranteed minimum license fee against a share of the revenue derived from consumer subscription and usage fees for the trivia game service.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031023/lath068b_1.html 
http://www.buzztime.com 
http://www.airborne-e.com

(Novato, Calif.) Sonic Solutions, a developer of CD and DVD creation software, announced on Thursday that it has opened a new development facility in Shanghai, China. "With the growth of the DVD creation market pushing demand for our technologies, Sonic's new Shanghai operations will play a key role in our efforts to rapidly bring products to market," said Sonic CEO Robert Doris.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031023/235012_1.html
http://www.sonic.com

(Hollywood) Fandango, a provider of advance online movie ticket sales, announced on Thursday that it has begun selling tickets two weeks in advance for the first screenings of Warner Bros. Pictures' "Matrix Revolutions," which opens in theaters on Nov. 5. Hollywood-based Fandango said that "Matrix Reloaded" was the top-selling advance ticket seller in company history.
http://www.fandango.com

(San Francisco) Gigex, a provider of video game promotional services, on Thursday launched its Gigex Family Guide, designed to help parents when purchasing video games for their children. The guide includes reviews and other information tailored for three age groups: two through seven, eight through twelve, and thirteen and older.
http://www.gigex.com/family

(San Francisco) CNET News.com recently reported on the new wave of ever-smaller minidrives that electronics firms are creating to put in portable devices, such as Apple's iPod and other hard drive-based audio and video products. Dell is soon expected to release a portable music player with a 1.8-inch, 40GB drive. Along with Toshiba, which developed the drive used in Apple's iPod line, other developers of minidrives include Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and a firm called Cornice, which has created an even smaller 1-inch, 1.5GB drive.
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5095188.html

(San Francisco) The most recent issue of WIRED magazine features an article written by former Sex Pistols manager Malcom McLaren on a nascent genre called "chip music," which utilizes reverse engineering, 8-bit synthesizer technology and instruments including a Nintendo Game Boy. One chip music software program, called Little Sound DJ (LSDJ), features a custom Game Boy cartridge that "takes over the palmtop's internal synthesizer and turns the device into a musical workstation capable of playing sequences and arpeggios, but not chords." Artists experimenting with chip music other than McLaren include Role Model, Adlib Sinner Forks, Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, Glomag, The Hardliner, Lo-Bat and 8-bit Construction Set.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/mclaren.html?tw=wn_tophead_6
http://www.littlesounddj.com 
http://www.nanoloop.de

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