Main Stories
o Senate Bill Would Give Prison Time to Online Movie Pirates
o Sprint PCS Launches MobiTV Wireless Live TV Streaming Service
o Report: U.S. Broadband Firms Added 2 Million Subscribers in Third Quarter
o Amazon.com Extends E-Commerce Fulfillment Pact with Borders Group
o Nielsen to Provide Data on P2P File-Sharing Traffic
o Shares of Interactive TV Firm OpenTV Fall with Loss of DirecTV Partnership
o New Paper-Thin, 1GB Storage Media Could Replace CDs in 5 Years

o Briefly Noted: Evite 2.0, Spike TV - Video Game Awards, NTN Communications, TVN - ESPN, RCN Corp. - video-on-demand, GameSpy - "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell," Ubisoft - "Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu" - "Beyond Good and Evil," Capcom Entertainment, "State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds" conference

Washington -- A Senate bill expected to be introduced on Thursday would provide a prison term of up to three years for any user of a file-sharing system found to possess any movie before it has been released in theaters, CNET News.com reported. Sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act would also implement a $250,000 fine for anyone who placed such a film on a public computer network, regardless of whether or not any actual copyright infringement had taken place. The legislation would also create another new felony, for bringing a camcorder into a movie theater and recording a movie, with a penalty of up to five years in prison. "This legislation will go a long way toward targeting one of the most serious contributors to piracy right now, which is the practice of camcording motion pictures [in theaters]," MPAA spokesman Rich Taylor told News.com. A similar bill outlawing pirate theater recordings has also been introduced in the House.
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-5106684.html
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o Sprint PCS Launches MobiTV Wireless Live TV Streaming Service

Berkeley, Calif. -- Idetic, a developer of wireless media delivery technology, announced on Thursday that its MobiTV wireless live TV streaming service has launched for wireless carrier Sprint's PCS Vision customers. The $9.99 monthly subscription service is now available as a download to select PCS Vision phones. Initially, MobiTV will include content from providers including MSNBC, CNBC, Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, CNET, College Sports Television, California Music Channel and Independent Music Network. "MobiTV really is live TV content streamed real-time to select PCS Vision phones, not pre-canned clips or slide shows. The real breakthrough here is that for the first time, people can watch real-time television content on their mobile phone anywhere on the Sprint Nationwide Network," said Idetic CEO Dr. Phillip Alvelda. Sprint PCS recently reported 2.7 million subscribers for its PCS Vision service.
http://www.idetic.com/releases/release_11_13_03.html 
http://www.mobitv.com 
http://www.pcsvision.com
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o Report: U.S. Broadband Firms Added 2 Million Subscribers in Third Quarter

Durham, N.H. -- Major U.S. cable and DSL broadband Internet providers added a combined 2 million new subscribers in the third quarter of 2003 -- the largest single-quarter rise recorded -- and now count nearly 22.7 million high speed Internet subscribers, according to data from New Hampshire-based Leichtman Research Group. The firm credits new discounts on high-speed Internet as impetus for the increase. "The market was stimulated by nearly every major broadband provider offering aggressive discounts for new subscribers. Without these promotions, this level of growth may prove to be difficult to maintain," said company president Bruce Leichtman. Broadband cable providers maintain a 64% share of the overall U.S. market versus DSL. The report also noted that the top ten U.S. cable providers now have broadband available to 88% of their total network footprint, while the top four DSL providers are cumulatively approaching 70% availability.
http://www.leichtmanresearch.com
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o Amazon.com Extends E-Commerce Fulfillment Pact with Borders Group

Seattle -- Online retailer Amazon.com on Thursday announced a multi-year extension of its agreement to provide e-commerce fulfillment services to fellow retailer Borders. Amazon.com will continue to provide technology services, site content, product selection and customer service for the co-branded Borders.com and Waldenbooks.com sites. Sales through the sites are recorded by Amazon.com, with Borders Group receiving a percentage of sales.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031113/135268_1.html 
http://www.borders.com
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o Nielsen to Provide Data on P2P File-Sharing Traffic

New York -- Ratings firm Nielsen announced on Thursday that it will begin offering statistical data of music files traded among peer-to-peer networks for its music industry clients. The company licensed New York-based Uncommon Media's WebSpins data, which has provided P2P music file-sharing and real-time downloading tracking and analysis since 2001.
http://www.nielsen.com/nielsen_entertainment.html
http://www.uncommonmedia.com ____________________________________________

o Shares of Interactive TV Firm OpenTV Fall with Loss of DirecTV Partnership

San Francisco -- OpenTV, a provider of interactive TV services, announced on Thursday that satellite TV operator DirecTV has opted not to renew its agreement to carry OpenTV's Wink interactive ad service. The news saw shares in Mountain View, Calif.-based OpenTV, which is controlled by Liberty Media, fall nearly 11%. OpenTV said revenue from Wink-enabled set top boxes deployed in DirecTV's network accounted for 2% of its overall revenue for the last nine months. "We were not prepared to renew our DirecTV agreement on terms that were neither economically viable nor in the long-term best interests of our company," said OpenTV CEO James Ackerman. The company will deactivate approximately 10.4 million of its Wink-enabled set top boxes on Dec. 22, when the current agreement with DirecTV expires.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031113/135243_1.html 
http://www.directv.com 
http://www.opentv.com
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o New Paper-Thin, 1GB Storage Media Could Replace CDs in 5 Years

Leeds, England -- Researchers at Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard believe they have created new recordable media technology that is paper-thin, can hold up to 1GB of data and has the potential to make the compact disc obsolete within five years, Ananova.com reported. The research centers on "the discovery of a previously unknown property of a commonly used conductive plastic coating," called PEDOT. The device would be similar to a recordable CD crossed with a memory card, which can "plug directly into an electronic circuit and have no moving parts."
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_837803.html

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(Los Angeles) Evite, a unit of Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp that provides online personal event planning services, on Thursday released a new version, Evite 2.0, with added features that aim to propel the service into the social networking site field populated by sites like Friendster and MySpace.com. The new version will allow users of the site to create a "My Info" page, where they may display personal interests and upload photos. "This new version of Evite (Evite 2.0) will then become a close competitor to Friendster, Craigslist, Emode, Meetup, etc., but still maintain a unique service," the company told News.com.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031113/lath021_1.html 
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-5106742.html 
http://www.evite.com

(New York) Spike TV, a cable channel within Viacom's MTV Networks, announced that it will present its first annual Video Game Awards show on Dec. 4, hosted by David Spade. The program will not be a traditional awards show, but will rather take place "in a futuristic setting which will seamlessly blend real and animated worlds into a dynamic presentation," with musical performances from "real and animated characters." Categories will include "Game of the Year," "Best Game Based on Movie," "Best Music" and "Best Performance by a Human."
http://www.spiketv.com

(Carlsbad, Calif.) NTN Communications, a provider of interactive TV services through its Buzztime division, announced on Thursday that it intends to acquire the assets of its Canadian licensee, NTN Interactive Network, from the company's current owner, Chell Group Corp. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031113/lath068_1.html 
http://www.ntn.com

(Burbank, Calif.) TVN Entertainment, a provider of video-on-demand programming and delivery services to cable TV operators, announced on Thursday an agreement with sports network ESPN, to provide encoding, asset management, site-specific metadata and multicast transport for ESPN video-on-demand programming. The companies will also explore opportunities for rapid delivery of time-sensitive video-on-demand content.
http://www.tvn.com/press/03111201.htm 
http://www.espn.com

(Princeton, N.J.) RCN Corporation, a provider of bundled phone, cable and high speed Internet services to over one million customers in large U.S. markets, announced on Thursday the launch general video-on-demand services, as well as subscription video-on-demand services from HBO and Cinemax, for its San Francisco customers.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031113/phth020_1.html 
http://www.rcn.com

(Irvine, Calif.) GameSpy, a provider of video game news, reviews and online game management services, announced on Thursday an agreement with game developer Ubisoft to offer the company's full PC game, "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell," for download to GameSpy subscribers. The title will be delivered using Trymedia Systems security technology.
http://www.gamespy.com 
http://www.ubisoft.com 
http://www.trymedia.com

(San Francisco) Video game publisher Ubisoft announced that it has released its "Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu" title for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Game Boy Advance to retailers. Developed by Ubisoft's Montreal studio, the game features the artwork of comic book artist Jum Lee. Ubisoft also released its "Beyond Good and Evil" title for PlayStation 2, developed by "Rayman" franchise creator Michael Ancel.
http://www.ubi.com/US/Articles/news_2003-11-11_BGElaunch.htm

(Sunnyvale, Calif.) Capcom Entertainment, the U.S. arm of the Japanese game developer, has announced the release of four new titles. "Disney's Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey and Minnie" and "Onimusha Tactics" are now available for Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and "Group S Challenge" and "Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown" were released for Microsoft Xbox.
http://www.capcom.com/news

(San Francisco) Wired News on Thursday reported on the first annual "State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds" conference taking place this weekend in New York, where game designers and academics will meet to discuss the relevance of real-world laws in online environments. "The more closely your life is tied to the game, the more what happens can be construed as injury to yourself ... privacy, fraud, breach (of contract). Maybe you really did break a promise. Maybe you did defame me. Maybe you did defraud me, and maybe that does matter," Yale Law professor and conference organizer Jack Balkin told Wired News.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,61188,00.html
http://www.nyls.edu/pages/777.asp

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