archives

o Hollywood Stock Exchange Merger With Predict It, Inc. Called Off
o Lifestyle Portal Urban Box Office Shuts Down, Lays Off 300
o MP3.com To Argue Universal Copyrights Invalid In Court
o Music Licenser ASCAP Willing To License To Napster
o Brazilian Entertainment Site Fulano Raises $4 Million
o StreamSage Raises $250,000 in Seed Round
> Digital Media Wire Networking Event - Los Angeles
o Briefly Noted: Vitaminic - Wanadoo SA, TiVo - Phillips/Sony, Madstone
Films, Katrillion Media - AT&T Wireless, theDial - InfoSpace
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o Hollywood Stock Exchange Merger With Predict It, Inc. Called Off

New York -- Predict It, a developer of sports and financial prediction
software, announced on Friday that it has ended merger negotiations with
Hollywood Stock Exchange, a virtual stock exchange that allows users to
trade shares in movies, music and celebrities. New York-based Predict It
said that the two companies have failed to secure the necessary financing
that was required to complete the proposed merger. The companies
previously announced that the merger hinged on securing a proposed
investment of $10 million from a group of investors that included SBS
Broadcasting and Citigroup Investments. Predict It also announced that it
has laid off 26 of 30 employees in an attempt to conserve funds while it
seeks investors. If investors cannot be found, the company said it may be
forced to file for bankruptcy protection. "Due to extremely difficult
capital market conditions and a general lack of investor enthusiasm for
interactive entertainment companies, we were unable to secure the
financing to complete the HSX deal or continue to meet our current payroll
obligations," said Andrew Merkatz, president of Predict It.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001103/ny_predict.html
http://www.predictit.com 
http://www.hsx.com
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o Lifestyle Portal Urban Box Office Shuts Down, Lays Off 300

New York -- Urban Box Office (UBO), a network of entertainment sites
focusing on urban culture, has shut down and laid off all 300 of its
employees, Inside.com reported. The company also said that it will file
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it is unable to pay its
creditors. A main factor to the company's problems was the withdrawal of a
planned $20 million investment from Interfase Capital in UBO's fourth
round of funding. The company's CEO told employees he thought the
withdrawal was a breach of contract, and plans to sue the venture firm. An
Interfase spokesman defended the firm's actions. "We are pleased that we
have been able to provide the funds to ensure that the UBO employees have
been able to receive a paycheck over the last weeks," said a spokesman for
Interfase. "Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to support a
business that is losing approximately $3 million a month." New York-based
Urban Box Office's network of sites included LatinFlava.com,
IndiePlanet.com and SoulPurpose.com
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,13278_7_4_1,00.html
http://www.urbanboxoffice.com
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o MP3.com To Argue Universal Copyrights Invalid In Court

New York -- In an attempt to reduce or nullify a potential $167.5 million
judgment for Universal Music Group resulting from copyright infringement
damages, MP3.com will argue that Universal's registration forms with the
U.S. Copyright Office are invalid, MP3.com lawyers told Bloomberg News.
Legal experts said that if this argument is accepted by the court,
Universal will not be able to collect the $167.5 million in damages. The
main issue is whether or not Universal was correct in designating the CD
recordings of its artists as "works-for-hire" in copyright registration
filings. If CDs are declared to be works-for-hire by the court, then
Universal and other labels could hold the rights to these recordings
indefinitely, and never have to return rights to artists. If CDs are not
found to be works-for-hire, then ownership of the recordings would go back
to the artists that created them 35 years after they are recorded. On
Wednesday, a group of artists including Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennett
and Sheryl Crow showed support for MP3.com's position in a letter sent to
the court on their behalf by the Recording Artists Coalition. "Recording
artists firmly believe that sound recordings are not works-for-hire," the
letter from the Recording Artists Coalition said. "If you rule that sound
recordings claimed by Universal are works-for-hire, scores of recording
artists throughout the industry -- in addition to those signed to
Universal -- will be directly affected."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3369291.html
http://www.recordingartistscoalition.com
http://www.mp3.com
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o Music Licenser ASCAP Willing To License To Napster

New York -- In response to Bertelsmann AG's announcement of a partnership
with music file-swapping site Napster, music licensing organization ASCAP
said that it is "ready and willing" to issue the company "performance"
licenses for recordings made by artists and publishers that it represents.
There are two types of licenses granted to companies, which let them
redistribute copyrighted music: "mechanical" licenses, which refer to a
physical medium such as a CD or tape, and "performance" licenses, which
refer to a public performance of a song, and cover things such as radio
and television broadcasts. "ASCAP has always been ready and willing to
issue a license to Napster for performances of the copyrighted music of
our songwriter and publisher members," said ASCAP president Marilyn
Bergman, in a statement. "ASCAP has never sought to shut down Napster… We
ask only that it be licensed for its performances of music so that
songwriters may be fairly compensated for the use of their works."
Streaming sites, such as Internet radio stations, must pay webcasting fees
to licensers like ASCAP and BMI for "performing" musicians' works for the
public, much the same way that traditional radio stations have long
compensated artists through the licensing organizations. It is unclear
whether or not Napster should be responsible for paying ASCAP and its
artists for "performance" licenses, because Napster does not stream music
from its site. ASCAP spokesman Jim Steinblatt would not comment on the
apparent differences between the streaming of "performances," which do
require a license from ASCAP, and the downloading of music files that
Napster facilitates.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3374973.html
http://www.ascap.com
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o Brazilian Entertainment Site Fulano Raises $4 Million

Sao Paolo, Brazil -- Fulano, an interactive entertainment site, announced
that it has raised $4 million in its first round of venture capital
financing. e-nicial Ventures led the investment round; additional
investors were not disclosed. Brazil-based Fulano.com features games,
quizzes and contests targeted at a youth audience. The company said it
will spend some of the acquired funds on targeted advertising.
http://www.fulano.com.br
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o StreamSage Raises $250,000 in Seed Round

Washington, DC-- StreamSage, a multimedia software developer, announced
on Friday that it has raised $250,000 in seed-stage investment. The
investment came from Duncaster Investments, a new seed stages firm.
DC-based StreamSage said it is currently trying to raise $3 million in
venture capital; the company will present its business plan next week at
the VentureOne Premiere conference in San Jose, California. "Already,
tech-savvy organizations are using multimedia for conferencing,
presentations, training, public relations, and research," the company
said. "StreamSage aims to change the way these early adopters use
multimedia and to make multimedia accessible to the general public."
http://www.streamsage.com
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> 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
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o Briefly Noted:

(San Francisco) Vitaminic, a promoter and distributor of digital music,
announced on Friday a partnership with French Internet service provider
Wanadoo SA. Under the deal, Vitaminic will supply music content for a new
music channel on Wanadoo's web site, as well as on Voila, a leading French
search engine. The service will allow users to search for, listen to,
legally download and buy music tracks from Vitaminic Europe's online music
catalog.
http://www.vitaminic.com
http://www.voila.com

(El Segundo, Calif.) Digital satellite television provider DirecTV has
announced that electronics manufacturers Phillips and Sony have both
developed DirecTV receivers equipped with TiVo, a digital television
recording technology. The addition of TiVo to the receivers will allow
DirecTV subscribers to record TV shows onto the TiVo hard drive.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001102/ca_tivo_di.html
http://www.directv.com
http://www.tivo.com

(San Francisco) Wired News ran a feature story on Friday about Madstone
Films, a company attempting to fully digitize the movie production
process. New York-based Madstone shoots and edits its films using digital
equipment, and also plans to show the films in theaters that it will
retrofit with digital projectors.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,39534,00.html
http://www.madstonefilms.com

(Fort Lee, N.J.) Katrillion Media, a provider of news targeted at teens,
announced on Friday a partnership with AT&T Wireless. Under the deal, New
Jersey-based Katrillion will provide entertainment, sports, style and
music news to AT&T Wireless customers.
http://www.katrillion.com
http://www.att.com

(Seattle) theDial, a provider of interactive audio entertainment,
announced on Friday that it has partnered with Internet infrastructure
services provider InfoSpace. Under the deal, Seattle-based theDial's
custom-branded web radio service will be available to users visiting
InfoSpace's Go2Net portal, as well as the company's metasearch sites,
Dogpile and MetaCrawler. The company provides similar services to sites
including Women.com and MySimon.com.
http://www.thedial.com
http://www.infospace.com
http://www.metacrawler.com
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