archives

o Upside President Resigns Amid Company Re-Structuring
o Ozzy Osbourne Sues Over Pay-Per-View Broadcast Meant Only For Internet
o Microsoft To Develop E-Books For The Blind
> Digital Media Wire Closed Nov. 23-24
o Briefly Noted: "Broadbandwagon: The Western Cable Show 2000," Ogg
Vorbis, MP3 Collaborator, Farmclub.com, MusicMatch - Linux,
DirecTV - The Weather Channel
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o Upside President Resigns Amid Company Re-Structuring

New York -- Upside Media, which publishes Upside Magazine and its online
counterpart Upside Today, as well as organizes Upside Events, is expected
to announce a split of the company along these lines on Wednesday,
Inside.com reported. Upside president Gini Talmadge fired Upside publisher
Elaine Ebner before she herself resigned on Monday. Upside will divide
itself into print, online and events divisions, in part so that investors
will be able to choose which aspect of the company they most favor,
according to the article. Upside CEO David Bunnell will retain his
position, while Upside magazine editor in chief Jerry Borrell will become
president of Upside Publishing Inc., and Tim Smith, formerly vice
president of events will become president of Upside Events Inc. The
company is also expected to announce its Upside Financial Networks, which
it said will cater to a broader, less tech-savvy audience.
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,15716_7_2_1,00.html
http://www.upside.com
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o Ozzy Osbourne Sues Over Pay-Per-View Broadcast Meant Only For Internet

Los Angeles -- Black Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne and the bands on
his Ozzfest tour have filed suit in Los Angeles court over the
pay-per-view broadcast of an Ozzfest concert, which Osbourne says was
meant to be aired only on the Internet, CNET reported. The suit alleges
copyright infringement, trademark dilution, and unlawful appropriation of
the artists' names and likenesses against DirecTV, In Demand and MCY.com,
a provider of live webcasts. Osbourne claims that an Ozzfest concert
videotaped by music webcaster MCY.com was aired on pay-per-view television
several times by DirecTV and InDemand, when MCY was only granted the
rights to broadcast the concert over the Internet. The suit also claims
that neither Osbourne nor the other bands on the tour have received shares
of profits from the pay-per-view broadcasts. The bands are also reportedly
upset because the "webcast taping was vastly inferior in quality to what
is required for a television broadcast." MCY disputes the suit, saying it
was granted pay-per-view rights and has in fact compensated the bands.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3799126.html
http://www.mcy.com
http://www.ozzfest.com/flashsite/main.html
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o Microsoft To Develop E-Books For The Blind

Redmond, Wash. -- Microsoft announced that it has partnered with New
Zealand-based Pulse Data to develop e-books for the blind. The company
said it will integrate its Microsoft Reader software with Pulse Data's
BrailleNote, which translates text into speech and electronic braille.
Users will be able download an e-book from an online retailer directly to
their BrailleNote device, at which point they may choose whether to listen
to an audio version of the title, or read it via electronic braille. The
BrailleNote device is expected to be available to consumers by the middle
of next year, and cost between $3,400 and $5,000. The device will also let
visually impaired users send and receive email messages.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001120/wa_microso.html
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3786579.html
http://www.pulsedata.com
_____________________________________________

> Digital Media Wire Closed Nov. 23-24

Digital Media Wire will be closed on November 23rd and 24th for the
Thanksgiving holiday. The next edition will be published on Monday,
November 27, 2000.
_____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(Los Angeles) "Broadbandwagon: The Westen Cable Show 2000," a conference
and trade show for the cable industry, will be held November 28th through
December 1st, 2000 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. 30,000 cable
television industry professionals will attend the conference, which this
year will focus on the use of cable lines for high-speed Internet access.
http://www.cct-assn.org/westernshow/press-release.html

(Cambridge, Mass.) Webnoize ran a feature on Wednesday concerning Ogg
Vorbis, an alternative music file to MP3. German audio engineering firm
Fraunhofer, the creators of the technology behind the .mp3 file type,
announced that they would charge royalty fees to MP3 encoders for use of
their patents. The creators of Vorbis have made their technology
open-source and royalty-free. The company hopes that webcasters and video
game manufacturers will switch to using Vorbis from MP3 to avoid paying
potential licensing fees to the manufacturers of the technology.
http://news.webnoize.com/item.rs?ID=11136
http://www.fhg.de/english/
http://www.vorbis.com/

(New Haven, Conn.) MP3Collaborator, an interactive music portal for
artists and music industry professionals, has announced the launch of its
site. The site offers musicians and other music industry professionals
such as engineers, writers, producers and agents a place to network with
one another and locate gigs and equipment. Musicians may upload both audio
and video to the site on free individual web pages provided by the New
Haven-based company.
http://www.mp3collaborator.com

(San Francisco) Streamingmedia.com is currently running a feature story on
Universal Music Group and Farmclub.com's on-demand streaming music
subscription service. The service allows users to create music playlists
and listen to nearly 25,000 Universal songs in any order they choose, or
to stream entire albums. A link is also provided below that will allow
users to participate in a current beta test of the streaming service.
http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=6542
http://www.farmclub.com/subscription/beta.html

(San Diego) MusicMatch, a provider of digital music player software,
announced that it has developed a test version of a music player designed
for use on the Linux operating system. In addition to its players for
Windows and Mac OS users, open-source Linux users will now be able to
create, play and organize MP3 files using San Diego-based MusicMatch's
technology.
http://www.musicmatch.com/about_us/press_releases.cgi?PRESS=86

(El Segundo, Calif.) Satellite broadcaster DirecTV announced that it has
partnered with The Weather Channel to launch an interactive television
channel. The channel, available to DirecTV subscribers with a Wink
interactive television receiver, allows viewers to choose in-depth, up to
date weather information and forecasts from over 1,000 cities.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001121/ca_directv.html
http://www.directv.com
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