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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- November 2, 2000
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To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com

o Teen-Targeted Entertainment Site iFUSE Shuts Down
o RIAA Responds To Listen.com Acquisition Of Scour
o Bertelsmann Deal Documents Show UCLA, Limp Bizkit Own Napster Stakes
o Digital Imaging Compression Firm Divio Receives $7.2 Million Investment
o Music Search Tool Developer CantaMetrix Closes Second Round
> Digital Media Wire Networking Event - Los Angeles
o Briefly Noted: Nerve - HBO, Open Door Online - Hollywood On Air,
EMusic.com, CastPro.com - KROQ-FM, Entertainment Blvd. - FMiTV.com, GEO Interactive - Hollywood.com, "American Pie 2," Mazda MP3 Player
_____________________________________________

o Teen-Targeted Entertainment Site iFUSE Shuts Down

Cambridge, Mass. -- iFUSE, an entertainment site targeted at teens, which
announced last week that it could no longer pay its employees has shut
down its operations, Webnoize reported on Thursday. "We never capitalized
enough," said Randy Herbertson, the company's former vice president of
revenue and syndication. "We ran a very lean operation, maybe too lean.
Nobody was buying yachts." Los Angeles-based iFUSE told employees that the
company was in talks to be acquired, but these deals fell through. The
company's web site was still functioning normally as of press time.
http://news.webnoize.com/item.rs?ID=10954
http://www.ifuse.com
_____________________________________________

o RIAA Responds To Listen.com Acquisition Of Scour

Washington, D.C. -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
responded to Wednesday's $5.5 million acquisition of media file-sharing
service Scour, Inc.'s assets by music entertainment site Listen.com,
commenting on how it would affect the RIAA's current lawsuit against the
company. RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen said, "I have been assured by Listen.com’s
management that prior to the acquisition of Scour.com, the file exchange
service and search engine service will be shut down and any resolution of
the lawsuit will depend upon Scour and Listen.com following through on
this commitment." The RIAA, along with the Motion Picture Association of
America, sued Scour for the alleged contributory copyright infringements
of its file-sharing exchange. The company, which could be liable for up to
$250 billion in damages, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
However, shutting down the company's file exchange service may not halt
the use of Scour's file-trading software, because a number of independent
"open source" servers currently offer connections to other users who have
installed Scour's file-sharing software on their computers. Inside.com
also reported today on the possibility that Scour may lose its legal
representation in its lawsuits with the RIAA and MPAA due to conflicts of
interest within the company's hired law firm.
http://www.riaa.org/PR_story.cfm?id=350
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,13668_10_12_1,00.html
http://www.scour.com
_____________________________________________

o Bertelsmann Deal Documents Show UCLA, Limp Bizkit Own Napster Stakes

New York -- Internal Napster documents being prepared for the company's
partnership with German music company Bertelsmann AG show that both UCLA
and rock group Limp Bizkit are investors in Napster, The Wall Street
Journal reported on Thursday. If Napster is able to legitimize its service
and bring in profits, these investors could realize large returns on their
investments. The University of California at Los Angeles' investment was
about $25,000, and was voted on "before the controversy in the site became
as intense as it is now," according to David Lundberg, director of
strategic alliances for the university. Universities including UCLA were
sent letters by an attorney on behalf of metal band Metallica and rapper
Dr. Dre, requesting that they ban the file-sharing service, because
students on their high-bandwidth school networks represent a large number
of Napster users. Napster recently paid $1.8 million to sponsor one of the
band's tours. The article said that Limp Bizkit has the rights to 447,000
shares of Napster stock.
http://www.limpbizkit.com
_____________________________________________

o Digital Imaging Compression Firm Divio Receives $7.2 Million Investment

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- SanDisk, a manufacturer of digital imaging and audio
storage products, announced on Thursday that it has made a $7.2 million
investment in Sunnyvale-based Divio, a developer of digital imaging
compression technology. In return, SanDisk will receive a ten percent
stake in Divio. Divio develops technology that allows video and image
files to be made smaller, so they can travel across the Internet at faster
rates. SanDisk said the investment will allow the companies to focus on
developing flash memory-based products for consumer video software.
"Flash" memory is the temporary storage technology that is used to store
data in devices such as cell phones and MP3 players.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001102/ca_sandisk.html
http://www.divio.com
http://www.sandisk.com
_____________________________________________

o Music Search Tool Developer CantaMetrix Closes Second Round

Bellevue, Wash. -- CantaMetrix, a developer of technology for digital
music, announced on Thursday that it has closed its second round of
venture capital financing. European venture firms Orn Group and Four
Seasons Venture AS of Norway, as well as Oregon-based Pillar Management
were the investors in the round. The amount of the investments was not
disclosed. Washington-based CantaMetrix is developing a sound-based search
engine for digital music that can also recommend similar artists to users.
The company also announced it has developed a new technology, called
MusicDNAT, that is capable of identifying and tracking MP3 files on the
Internet.
http://www.cantametrix.com
_____________________________________________

> Digital Media Wire Networking Event - Los Angeles

Digital Media Wire will host its first networking event on Wednesday,
November 8, 2000 in Los Angeles, for subscribers and those interested in
the convergence of entertainment, technology and the Internet. Please
feel free to spread the word to others who may be interested. Light hors
d'oeuvres will be served and there will be a cash bar. There is no charge
for the event and registration is not necessary.

Sponsors:
Netjammer
Red Road Foundation

Date: Wednesday, November 8
Time: 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Where: The Sunset Trocadero Lounge
8280 Sunset Boulevard - West Hollywood, CA

For additional details: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/dmw_event1.html
_____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(New York) Nerve, an online and print publication that covers sex, is
developing a cable television program with HBO, Inside.com reported.
Details of the program were not available, and Nerve CEO Rufus Griscom
would not confirm the report. New York-based Nerve, which says it offers
"literate smut," covers topics relating to sex in a print magazine, and on
nerve.com.
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,13620_7_4_1,00.html
http://www.nerve.com

(Coventry, R.I.) Open Door Online, which sells and distributes music
online for traditional record labels, distribution and publishing
companies, announced on Thursday that it will acquire Hollywood On Air, a
provider of online radio and television programming. Terms of the
all-stock transaction were not disclosed. Rhode Island-based Open Door
Online said that it will gain all of Hollywood On Air's entertainment
library, as well as online marketing services as a result of the
acquisition.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001102/ri_open_do.html
http://www.hollywoodonair.com

(Redwood City, Calif.) EMusic.com, a downloadable music provider,
announced on Thursday that it will offer a free trial of its paid
subscription service for digital music downloads. To receive the free
trial, consumers must first sign up for a paid three-month or one-year
subscription. The free trial will let users download up to 100 songs
during a thirty-day period.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001102/ca_hollywo.html
http://www.emusic.com

(Los Angeles) CastPro.com, a provider of live webcasting technology,
announced on Thursday that it will provide live video webcasting services
inside the DJ studios at Los Angeles' top-rated radio station, KROQ-FM.
LA-based CastPro previously provided KROQ with a live webcast of its
"Weenie Roast 2000" concert.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001102/ca_castpro.html
http://www.castpro.com
http://www.kroq.com 

(Los Angeles) Entertainment Blvd. announced on Thursday that it will turn
over operations of its streaming video entertainment web site, Vidnet.com,
to teen-focused entertainment site FMiTV.com. Under the management
services agreement, Burbank-based FMiTV.com, which produces web sites for
radio stations, will also acquire Vidnet.com's library of entertainment
content.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001102/ca_enterta.html
http://www.vidnet.com
http://www.fmitv.com

(New York) GEO Interactive, a provider of streaming video technology for
wireless devices, announced on Thursday that it will encode video content
for Boca Raton-based Hollywood.com, an entertainment site. The service
will allow Hollywood.com visitors to view celebrity interviews and movie
previews over web-enabled wireless devices.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001102/ca_hollywo.html
http://www.emblaze.com
http://www.hollywood.com

(Universal City, Calif.) Universal Studios announced on Thursday that
entertainment site and film studio Hypnotic.com will host an online
casting call for Universal's "American Pie 2." Those interested must
submit head shots and resumes to Hypnotic.com's web site between November
2nd and 8th; Universal said it will cast two "featured extras" from the
submissions in the picture.
http://www.hypnotic.com

(Las Vegas) Car manufacturer Mazda announced on Thursday that it will
offer consumers the option of a factory-installed MP3-capable audio system
in its cars and trucks. Electronics manufacturer Kenwood will manufacture
the stereos, which will come with a CD player capable of playing CD-Rs
that have the capacity to hold up to 10 hours of MP3-encoded music on a
single disc.
http://www.mazdausa.com
http://www.kenwoodusa.com
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