archives

o Blockbuster Launches Video On-Demand Service
o EMusic.com Sues MP3.com For Copyright Infringement
o MP3.com To Create In-Store Music Service For 530 PETCO Locations
o Music Site Vitaminic Offers Subscription Download Service
o Online Stock Audio Provider Sonomic Raises $1.5 Million
o Business Publication Red Herring Announces 32 Layoffs
o Briefly Noted: Aimster - MS Messenger - Yahoo Messenger, At the
Drive-In, BayTSP, Soundom, GoReader - Addison Wesley, Webnoize
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> Job Postings: Software Developer, Technology Manager, SW & FPGA Engineers, Sales Rep., PR Professionals

> Events: Master the Technology, Potomac Tech Wire Seminar Series, iHollywood Forum

Full Job/Event descriptions listed below "Briefly Noted" section or at
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/postings.html

To Post a Job: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html
To Post an Event: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html
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o Blockbuster Launches Video On-Demand Service

Houston -- Blockbuster Corporation has announced the launch of its
consumer video on-demand service in several U.S. markets. The service
delivers movies to set-top boxes in consumers' homes using Houston-based
Enron Corporation's broadband services, and local Internet service
providers in the test cities of Seattle, Portland, Ore. and Salt Lake
City. Dallas-based Blockbuster said it is also conducting technical trials
with Verizon to launch the service in New York City, and has signed an
agreement with FiberRide to deliver the service to markets in California.
Consumers are currently able to choose from a range of independent studio
movies -- the company has not yet secured the rights to distribute films
from the major Hollywood studios. Blockbuster will also offer sporting
events, educational and family programming in the future.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001218/tx_enron_b.html
http://www.blockbuster.com
http://www.enron.net
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o EMusic.com Sues MP3.com For Copyright Infringement

Redwood City, Calif. -- Downloadable music site EMusic.com announced on
Tuesday that the company, along with several of its independent label
partners, have filed a copyright infringement complaint against MP3.com
and its My.MP3.com streaming service. San Diego-based MP3.com recently
settled similar lawsuits filed by the five major record labels and music
publishers. Redwood City-based EMusic.com offers paid subscriptions to its
users who download songs from its catalog of 13,000 albums from 600
labels. Joining the company in its complaint are partner labels Fearless
Records, Fuel 2000 Records, Gig Records, Invisible Records, SpinART
Records and Victory Records. EMusic.com is alleging that the My.MP3.com
streaming service is providing music for which EMusic.com and its partners
have exclusive digital rights to distribute. "Although MP3.com has entered
into settlement agreements with the five major record labels, they have
chosen to ignore their infringing actions with respect to independent
record labels," said Gene Hoffman, CEO of EMusic. "EMusic strongly
supports the rights of music fans to have access to convenient,
inexpensive digital music -- as well as the rights of all labels and
artists to choose how and where their music is used." The company said it
is currently unable to determine how many of its songs have been infringed
upon by the service.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001219/ca_emusic_.html
http://www.emusic.com
http://my.mp3.com
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o MP3.com To Create In-Store Music Service For 530 PETCO Locations

San Diego -- MP3.com, a provider of digital music to consumers and
businesses, announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with premium
pet-supply retailer PETCO to install in-store digital music and audio
advertising services for each of its 530 retail outlets. Terms of the deal
were not disclosed, however, San Diego-based MP3.com said it will launch
the service in all stores by the end of the first quarter of 2001. The
service allows PETCO to pick and program the music and audio advertising
it would like to have broadcast over the loudspeakers in its stores, much
like the service known as Muzak. MP3.com's retail music service can
program content for every location through a web interface. "We're very
pleased that they [PETCO] have chosen to replace their music satellite
service with what we believe is a far more cost-effective, web-enabled
alternative that allows for immediate customization of music and
advertising content," said Bob Simril, vice president of retail music
services for MP3.com.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001219/ca_mp3_mus.html
http://www.mp3.com/retail
http://www.petco.com
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o Music Site Vitaminic Offers Subscription Download Service

San Francisco -- Vitaminic, a downloadable music site featuring unsigned
and independent label artists, announced on Tuesday that it will offer an
"unlimited" download subscription service. The company said it will launch
the service in January across its network of sites, which operate in the
U.S. as well as the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and
Sweden. San Francisco-based Vitaminic will offer year-long subscriptions
for between $80 and $100, allowing users to download as much music as they
want from any of Vitaminic's sites. The company is also offering
subscriptions to businesses -- Italian PC maker Brain Technology has
acquired "thousands" of subscriptions to offer in packages with its PCs.
http://www.vitaminic.com
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o Online Stock Audio Provider Sonomic Raises $1.5 Million

New York -- Sonomic, a provider of online audio samples and sound effects
libraries, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $1.5 million in its
first round of venture capital financing from B2B-Hive. The company said
it expects to launch its service in early January. New York-based Sonomic
will provide audio producers in film, TV, advertising and video game
industries with an online library of sound effects, which they can preview
and then download to any computer.
http://www.sonomic.com/pr.htm
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o Business Publication Red Herring Announces 32 Layoffs

San Francisco -- Red Herring Communications, publisher of Red Herring
Magazine and Redherring.com, announced that it will lay off 32 employees
as part of its plan to redesign the company's website. The layoffs will
come mostly in the company's engineering and technology operations, which
it will now outsource. Red Herring said it will eliminate "a few positions
in editorial and other departments" as well. San Francisco-based Red
Herring covers technology-driven businesses in its print and online
publications.
http://www.redherring.com
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o Briefly Noted:

(Los Angeles) Aimster, a file-sharing program that works alongside America
Online's instant messenger service, will soon function with Microsoft's
MSN messenger service and Yahoo's Yahoo Messenger, according to a Reuters
report. The company's service differs from Napster in that files are not
shared with strangers. Users must add one another to their messaging
service's "buddy list" in order to trade files. The service has attracted
about 2.5 million AOL subscribers since its release, company spokesman
Johnny Deep told Reuters.
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/759812l.htm
http://www.aimster.com

(New York) MTV.com announced that it is currently featuring a video
performance from the indie rock band At the Drive-In, featured on Friday
evening's Late Show with David Letterman program. The downloadable video
was available immediately following the conclusion of the band's
performance on television, and is viewable for 30 days in Microsoft's
Windows Media format.
http://www.mtvi.com/flash/press_release_detail.asp?id=223
http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/webcast/drive_in.shtml
http://www.atthedrive-in.net

(San Jose, Calif.) BayTSP, a provider of digital rights management,
announced on Tuesday the release of its software designed to track the
transmission of digital music files across the Internet. The software is
essentially a "spider" that continually searches websites, news groups and
peer-to-peer networks for copyrighted files, and upon finding them sends
notification to the website operator and corresponding Internet service
provider.
http://www.baytsp.com

(Los Angeles) Soundom, a site that pays users to listen to their own
music, and uses advertising to pay recording artists, announced on Tuesday
the first test release of its software. The software identifies music
playing through a user's computer and sends targeted audio and banner
advertising based on the user's listening preferences. It can then
recommend similar music and places to buy it. Los Angeles-based Soundom
compensates its listeners for answering demographic questions, which it
sells to advertisers to account for royalties paid to recording artists.
http://www.soundom.com

(Chicago) GoReader, a developer of e-book readers and e-books for the
educational market, announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with
Addison Wesley, a publisher of college textbooks. Under the agreement,
Chicago-based GoReader will publish e-book versions of 134 business,
computer science, mathematics, liberal arts and science titles. The
company's e-book reader holds about 250 textbooks worth of data that
displays on a high-resolution color screen.
http://www.goreader.com
http://www.awlonline.com/aw/

(Cambridge, Mass.) Digital entertainment news site Webnoize reported on
Tuesday that it estimates 1.76 billion songs were downloaded using
file-sharing service Napster in November.
http://www.webnoize.com

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Job Postings:
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To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html

> MultiVideo Channel One, Inc. (MVC1), Software Developer - Washington DC

Software Developer needed to design video compression software that
delivers digital video files via the Internet. MVC1 offers a national
television broadcast and a new Internet media platform for distributing
traditional and new interactive content.
Send resumes to kwhite@mvc1.com
http://www.mvc1.com
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> Washingtonpost.com, Technology Manager

Washingtonpost.com, the region's most popular destination for everything
Washington, is seeking a Technology Manager. Join our hot team of
professionals and enjoy advanced classes in the latest technologies,
networking at industry events, working for a solid world-class
organization with a future, and making your mark on our award-winning
website. Send resumes to jobstech@wpni.com or visit
http://www.washingtonpost.com and click on Join Us.
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> Convergent Companies, Inc., SW & FPGA Engineers - Greenbelt, MD

We are developing break-through video compression technologies for the
Internet and are looking for FPGA and Software engineers with 1-8 yrs
experience. BSEE/CS familiarity with C++, image processing, object
programming. FPGA position, exp FPGA programming, DSP architectures esp
w/Xilinx. Check out Employment section of our website for details.
Send resumes to jobs@convergentcompanies.com
http://www.convergentcompanies.com
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> Intervise, Sales Representative - DC Metro

Responsible for selling IT Consulting Services to Fortune 1000 companies
and Internet startups. Sales Professional must have 3+ years experience in
selling IT Professional Services. Package includes base salary and
commissions, 401K and Health and Dental insurance.
Send resumes to cgriesbach@intervise.com
http://www.intervise.com
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> KG Communications, Public Relations Professionals - McLean, VA

KG Communications specializes in launching start-ups in the telecom field.
Opportunities exist for candidates with strong writing and communications
skills, knowledge of high-tech trade & business media, analysts and
events. A minimum 3 years' experience in high-tech PR-telecom a plus.
Highly competitive compensation, benefits and perks.
Send resumes to kay.handrahan@kgcom.com

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Event Postings:
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To Post Events: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html

> Master the Technology that is Changing the World - GW Virginia Campus

The George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science
will hold an informational session at the Virginia Campus in Ashburn from
6-8 p.m. on January 11th . This is a great opportunity to find out about
cutting edge graduate engineering degree programs including: Computer
Security and Information Assurance; Multimedia, Animation, Graphics and
User Interfaces; Software Engineering and Systems; Computer Architecture,
Networks, Parallel and Distributed Computing; Wireless and Mobile
Networks; Telecommunications and Computers. Contact: scason@va.gwu.edu
http://www.seasva.gwu.edu
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> Potomac Tech Wire Seminar Series: Doing Business with Israel

Sponsor: Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. On Thursday, Jan. 11, Potomac Tech
Wire and Jones Day will host a panel discussion on DC technology firms
doing business with Israel. Panelists include: Daniel Epstein, Executive
Director of US-Israeli Business Exchange; Emanuel Friedman, Chairman and
Co-CEO of Friedman, Billings & Ramsey; Philip Garfunkle, Former President
of Yazam; Stephan Mallenbaum, Partner, Jones Day (Moderator); Additional
Panelists To Be Determined. When: 7:30-8:00 a.m. - Registration and
Breakfast; 8:00-9:30 a.m. - Panel Discussion and Q&A; Where: McLean
Hilton.
To Register for this Event: http://www.potomactechwire.com/Israel.htm
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> iHollywood Forum: How Adult Entertainment Profits From the Internet

Whatever one's attitude toward adult entertainment, one fact is
undeniable: it's the only segment of the entertainment industry that
consistently makes money on the Internet. Panelists include: Larry Flynt,
Publisher of Hustler Magazine; Gail Harris, CEO and President of Falcon
Foto; David Schlesinger, Vice President of Internet Marketing at Vivid
Video; Fred Lane, Author of "Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of
Pornography in the Cyber Age" (Routledge 2000); Mike Rick, Co-founder of
Cybersynergism (Webmaster Superstore for Online Adult Entertainment) and
kSEXRadio.com. When: Wednesday January 17, 6:00 pm-10pm; Where: Santa
Monica Doubletree.
To Register: http://www.ihollywoodforum.com/new/events/jan17_2001.htm
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