Main Stories
o Retrial of Norwegian DVD Hacker Ends; Ruling Expected Dec. 22
o Sirius, CBC/Radio-Canada Partner to Bring Satellite Radio Service to Canada
o Report: U.S. Wireless Gaming to Generate $1 Billion by 2006
o Philips Consumer Electronics CEO Departs; Division's Future in Doubt
o Report: Venture Capital Fundraising Expected to Increase in 2004

o Briefly Noted: Nokia - Mobile Raditude, MusicNow - SBC Yahoo DSL, Consolidated Independent - indie record labels, Alacritude - Thomson Gale, Mtone, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Third-party ringtone providers, JenniCam

Oslo -- The retrial of a Norwegian who as a teenager who cracked the encryption technology protecting DVD movies from being freely copied ended on Thursday, with prosecutors asking the judge for a guilty verdict and 90-day suspended jail term, Reuters reported. Norway's Economic Crime Unit mounted the appeal at the behest of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which also lobbied for the original case to be brought against Jon Johansen, creator of the DeCSS computer code. The Norwegian court acquitted Johansen in January, saying that he was free to do whatever he wanted to with his legally purchased DVDs. Prosecutors told the Oslo Appeals Court that a 45-day suspended sentence was also acceptable, if the judge did not accept their argument that the film industry suffered damages as a result of Johansen's actions. A ruling is due on Dec. 22.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?O2AD628C6
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/Johansen_DeCSS_case
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o Sirius, CBC/Radio-Canada Partner to Bring Satellite Radio Service to Canada

New York -- Sirius Satellite Radio, a provider of nationwide, satellite-delivered digital radio programming, announced on Thursday that it has formed a joint venture with Canadian public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada to bring its satellite radio service to Canada. The companies said they will soon file an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to provide the service in Canada, and are in negotiations with other potential Canadian financial and broadcast investors for the venture. No timeline or specific launch date for the service was announced. CBC/Radio-Canada will syndicate its Radio One and La Premiere Chaine channels on the service, which will provide opportunities for existing and emerging Canadian artists. "By expanding the choices available to Canadians, this new service will enable the national public broadcaster to better fulfill its mandate by extending its reach and enhancing its services to Canadians," said CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031210/nyw131_1.html 
http://www.siriusradio.com 
http://www.cbc.ca/audio.html
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o Report: U.S. Wireless Gaming to Generate $1 Billion by 2006

Framingham, Mass. -- As the percentage of cell phone users who play wireless games jumps from 7.9% of all U.S. wireless subscribers in 2003 to 34.7%, or 65.2 million users, by 2008, revenue generated from wireless games is expected to reach $1 billion by 2006, according to projections from Massachusetts-based analyst firm IDC. The firm said that carriers must accelerate distribution of download-capable cell phone handsets, as well as be early to market with new game titles in order to capitalize on the growing market segment. "In the next 12 months, carriers plan to aggressively promote wireless games to their subscribers while offering new line-ups of compelling titles, including those that support multiplayer and limited 3D rendering," said IDC senior research analyst Dana Thorat. IDC reported that 2003's most popular wireless games included Jamdat's "Jamdat Bowling," Activision's "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater," Eidos' "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" and Gameloft's "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell."
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jhtml?containerId=pr2003_12_08_102033
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o Philips Consumer Electronics CEO Departs; Division's Future in Doubt

Atlanta -- Larry Blanford, CEO of Atlanta-based Philips Consumer Electronics, will leave the company at the end of this month and be replaced by Reinier Jens, head of the Northern Europe division of Philips Consumer Electronics. Blanford, a former executive with Maytag, joined Philips three years ago. Recently, Netherlands-based Philips announced that it will lay off about one-third of its employees in the Consumer Electronics Division by the end of the year and that the operation will be shut down entirely if it does not reach profitability within the next several quarters.
http://www.pressi.com/int/nomination/81670.html
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o Report: Venture Capital Fundraising Expected to Increase in 2004

San Francisco -- Venture capital fundraising appears to be on the rise with 52% of venture capital firms worldwide planning to raise another fund before the end of 2004, according to the findings of the VentureOne/Ernst & Young Outlook Study. "VC activity in the most recent two quarters is showing signs of optimism after the downturn of the last three years," said Gil Forer, Global Venture Capital Advisory Group leader of Ernst & Young. "The larger U.S. funds we've spoken with are each planning to invest in 10-15 new deals in 2004."
http://www.newsalert.com/bin/story?StoryId=Cp9AOubWbmZq0Cdm3otG

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> Making Your Way thru the Homeland Security Maze

Small businesses wanting to do business with the government face unique challenges when entering the federal marketplace. The 2003- 2004 Directory of Homeland Security includes a detailed list of procurement information and small business government contacts for the various federal departments and agencies. Contact names, titles, phone and fax numbers and descriptions are included in the listings. The Department of Homeland Security portion of the directory has entire section titled, "Doing Business with the Department of Homeland Security." To order the 2003-2004 edition, go to: http://www.tech-directories.com/dmw.htm
 

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(Irving, Texas) Nokia on Thursday announced Mobile Raditude, the first mobile video gaming competition for its N-Gage hybrid cell phone/handheld video game deck. The competition, running through February, will feature Activision's "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" title, and will reward players in the Top 10 online leaderboard each month with prizes.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031211/dath021_1.html 
http://arena.n-gage.com/raditude

(Chicago) MusicNow, a provider of branded digital music subscription services, announced on Thursday a promotional partnership with SBC Yahoo DSL, a provider of high-speed Internet access. New SBC Yahoo DSL subscribers who sign up before March 31 will receive ten free song downloads on MusicNow, which offers 400,000 tracks from all five major labels.
http://www.musicnow.com 
http://sbc.yahoo.com

(London) Consolidated Independent, a U.K.-based provider of digital music encoding services, said on Thursday that it has been contracted to deliver digital music files to services including iTunes, O2 Music and Musicmatch on behalf of independent record labels Mute, Ninja Tune, Tummy Touch and Dorado Records. The company delivers files in Windows Media Audio, Real Audio, Archive quality MP3, AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and AAC+ formats. Consolidated Independent also encoded the iTunes tracks available from Beggars Group, XL Recordings and Matador Records.
http://ci-info.com

(Chicago) Alacritude, the publisher of Encyclopedia.com and the eLibrary online article archive, announced on Thursday that it added articles from Thomson Gale to eLibrary, which now offers over 28 million documents from 2,600 newspapers, magazines and other sources. New additions from Thomson Gale include editions of London's Daily Telegraph, Esquire, Newsweek and Variety.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031211/nyth070_1.html 
http://www.alacritude.com 
http://www.galegroup.com 
http://www.elibrary.com

(Beijing) Mtone, a publisher of wireless entertainment content, on Thursday launched its "Cell Phone" game title, based on the film of the same name from Chinese director Feng Xiaogang. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Mtone is a co-sponsor of the movie, along with China Mobile, Motorola and BMW.
http://www.mtone.com

(New York) Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that it has named Michael Lynton as chairman and CEO of the company. Previously, Lynton served as president of Time Warner International, AOL International and AOL Europe. The company also said it promoted vice-chairman Amy Pascal to the position of chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031210/nyw150_1.html 

(San Francisco) Wired News on Thursday reported on several third-party cell phone ringtone providers, looking to cash in on a market that analyst firm Zelos Group predicts will generate $100 million in U.S sales in 2003. Los Angeles-based Xingtone offers a service that allows users (currently compatible with AT&T, Sprint PCS, Cingular and T-Mobile) to create a ringtone based on any MP3 file stored on a PC, and download the ringer to their phone over the wireless Web. Meanwhile, San Francisco-based Modtones has developed a "silent" ringtone after mounting requests from users of its downloadable ringtone service, which is compatible with carriers including Verizon, Alltel, Cellular One and U.S. Cellular.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61517,00.html
http://www.xingtone.com 
http://www.modtones.com

(San Francisco) A number of news outlets reported on Thursday on the shuttering of JenniCam, one woman's personal webcam that has chronicled her daily life on live Internet video for over seven years. Online payment processing firm PayPal has decided to shut the site down due to 27-year-old owner Jennifer Ringley's exhibitionist streak, which runs counter to the company's acceptable use policy on frontal nudity.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3966248
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jenni11dec11.story
http://www.jennicam.org

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