Main Stories
o Vivendi's Universal Music to Buy DreamWorks Records for $100 Million
o U.K. Ratifies New Tougher Copyright Law
o SightSound Dispute Over Paid Music Download Patent Goes to Trial
o L.A. Times: MIT Music Service Asked to Remove Universal's Songs
o Yahoo Drops European Paid Search Partner Espotting for Overture
o Controversial Online Ad Firm Gator Changes Name to Claria

o Briefly Noted: Mag Rack - United Airlines, Majesco - "BloodRayne 2," Aspyr Media - "Wakeboarding Unleashed featuring Shaun Murray," Ringback tones

New York -- Vivendi's Universal Music Group has reached an agreement in principle to buy DreamWorks Records for about $100 million, Billboard.com reported. The label, founded by the team of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, is home to artists including Rufus Wainwright, Eels, Q-Tip and the late Elliott Smith. Under the terms of the agreement, DreamWorks would operate under Jimmy Iovine at Universal's Interscope/Geffen/A&M label group, although it remains unclear whether DreamWorks will retain its identity as a separate label. DreamWorks is also reportedly seeking to sell off its music publishing business for between $200-$300 million.
http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2015305
http://www.nypost.com/business/9565.htm
http://www.dreamworksrecords.com
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o U.K. Ratifies New Tougher Copyright Law

London -- The Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003, a new set of copyright laws that parallel the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act and European Union Copyright Directive, went into effect in the U.K. on Friday. The new legislation was passed by the U.K. Patent Office, which told Reuters that law would not enable the fining or imprisonment of individual users of file-sharing networks -- although civil suits are still a course of action. "This law is aimed at the most dangerous activity: the organized crime gangs with warehouses of pirated materials," patent office spokesman Jeremy Philpott told Reuters. "It is not meant to bring criminal charges to individual downloaders." Along with the U.K., Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Italy have also adopted versions of the EU Copyright Directive; 10 member states have yet to pass their version of the law as mandated by the EU.
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2003/20032498.htm
http://makeashorterlink.com/?X28136766
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o SightSound Dispute Over Paid Music Download Patent Goes to Trial

Mount Lebanon, Pa. -- SightSound Technologies, a distributor of downloadable music and movies on behalf of providers like Comedy Central and Destination Films, announced that a federal court has ruled in its favor in a long-running patent dispute with several subsidiaries of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. SightSound owns a patent the company says covers the process of selling downloadable music and video over the Internet. The company said that the court granted its request for summary judgment, denying one of Bertelsmann's counterclaims. The decision also rejected Bertelsmann's summary judgment motion attacking the validity of SightSound patents. The lawsuit, originally filed in 1998, will now go to a full trial. "We are very pleased with the Court's thorough and well-reasoned opinion and we look forward to taking this case to trial," said lead counsel William Wells of Kenyon & Kenyon.
http://www.sightsound.com 
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=58782 
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-837901.html?tag=nl
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o L.A. Times: MIT Music Service Asked to Remove Universal's Songs

Los Angeles -- A new MIT campus music service, which looked to sidestep added royalty payments by distributing music over the school's analog cable TV network, has had to remove one major label's music, The Los Angeles Times reported. MIT's Library Access to Music Project (LAMP), invented by two students at the university, lets users trade-off playing DJ by choosing songs from 3,500 CDs, provided in digital form by Seattle-based Loudeye Technologies. It was Loudeye which did not have permission to distribute the tracks to MIT, said Universal Music Group, when it asked the school to remove UMG songs from the LAMP service. While MIT said it thought Loudeye had the appropriate licenses, Loudeye said it simply provided MIT with files and the school was then responsible for securing necessary licenses. "It is unfortunate that MIT launched a service in an attempt to avoid paying recording artists, union musicians and record labels. Loudeye recognized that they had no right to deliver Universal's music to the MIT service, and MIT acted responsibly by removing the music," Kelly Mullens, a spokeswoman for Universal Music, told The Times.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mit31oct31.story 
http://lamp.mit.edu
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o Yahoo Drops European Paid Search Partner Espotting for Overture

London -- Yahoo announced on Friday that it has replaced Espotting Media with Overture Services for the provision of ad-sponsored search links on its sites in the U.K. and other European countries. In a statement, Yahoo said that Overture's search results would be available on Yahoo's sites in the U.K., Ireland, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, effective immediately. Overture already enjoys similar partnerships with Wanadoo, Tiscali and Time Warner's AOL Europe division. Industry experts have expected the move since Yahoo's $1.6-billion acquisition of Overture three weeks ago.
http://www.oracle.com 
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/pr  ____________________________________________

o Controversial Online Ad Firm Gator Changes Name to Claria

Redwood City, Calif. -- Gator, the controversial online advertising firm that has been sued by publishers over its software that imposes competitors' pop-up ads over existing online ads, announced that it has changed its corporate name to Claria. The move comes in part to distance the company from the negative connotations associated with Gator, which will remain as the name for the company's e-wallet software that allows users to store passwords in a single place. The company's other business delivers targeted ads to 38 million subscribers who signed up to receive them as a condition of receiving free software, such as Sharman Networks' popular Kazaa file-sharing application. Claria also provides online research and Web analytics data. "Today, the [Gator] digital wallet is only one component within just one of our company's three business units. We feel that the Claria Corporation name will allow us to better communicate the expanding breadth of offerings that we provide to consumers and advertisers," said Claria CEO Jeff McFadden.
http://www.claria.com/companyinfo/press/releases/20031030.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5099601.html

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(New York) Mag Rack, a video-on-demand service from Rainbow Media Holdings that offers content in a video magazine format, announced on Friday a distribution agreement with United Airlines. United will provide highlights of Mag Rack's video magazines on overhead video viewing screens on its domestic and international flights. Titles will include "Mission: Space"; "Destination: Nature"; "Inside Weddings"; "Your Next Car" and "Traveler's Guide."
http://www.magrack.com

(Edison, N.J.) Video game publisher Majesco announced that it will create a sequel to its "BloodRayne" title, which is currently being made into a feature film by German production firm Boll KG. "BloodRayne 2" will be developed by Lewisville, Texas-based Terminal Reality for release in October 2004.
http://www.majescogames.com/news/press/pages/oct302003.htm
http://www.terminalreality.com 
http://www.bloodrayne2.com

(Austin) Video game publisher Aspyr Media announced on Friday that it has shipped a version of Activision's "Wakeboarding Unleashed featuring Shaun Murray" for Nintendo Game Boy Advance to retailers. Austin-based Aspyr said that the game was developed by U.K.-based Small Rockets.
http://www.aspyr.com 
http://www.smallrockets.com

(San Francisco) Wired News on Friday reported on "ring-back tones," an emerging musical cell phone feature where, instead of hearing the normal "ring-ring," callers instead hear a song or voice message played while they are waiting for the person they called to answer the phone. The feature is already popular in Korea, where Yankee Group projects ring-back tone revenues of over $100 million this year. Massachusetts-based NMS Communications plans to launch a ringback tone service in the U.S. early next year, and carriers including Virgin Mobile USA say they also plan to offer ringback tones.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,60984,00.html
http://www.nmscommunications.com

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