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Main Stories
o Screener Copy of Sony's "Something's Gotta Give" Found on Internet
o Napster Parent Roxio Raising $22.5 Million, Signs Deal with Tom Petty
o Supreme Court Declines to Hear Aimster File-Sharing Case
o Smithsonian to Sell Folkways Label Catalog Online  
o Beastie Boys' Defunct Grand Royal Label to Auction Assets Online  
o Labels Sue Website for "Parallel Importing" of CDs, Undercutting Retailers
o Game Publisher Ubisoft Acquires French Development Studio Tiwak
o Report: Worldwide Ringtone Sales Up 40% to $3.5 Billion

o Briefly Noted: Vivendi Universal Games - new CEO, Electronic Arts - "NFL Street," JRRTolkien.com - cybersquatter, Limelight Networks - Valve Software, Liberate Technologies - Cox, Google IPO, Record labels - music publishers - "double session" CD royalties

Los Angeles -- Adding fuel to the debate over the piracy potential for "screener" copies of Oscar-hopeful movies, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said on Monday that a screener copy of Sony Pictures' "Something's Gotta Give" was found to be available on the Internet. Technology embedded in the screener designed to trace it back to its original recipient found that the copy in question was sent to 69-year-old veteran film and TV actor Carmine Caridi, who has played roles in films including "The Godfather: Part II," "The Money Pit" and "Brewster's Millions." The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) last year declared a ban on studio distribution of screeners, citing potential piracy, but on Dec. 5 a federal judge overturned the ban saying it would harm the independent film industry. To help ensure against piracy, all Academy members were required to sign a form saying they would not redistribute 2003 screeners, which in part reads, "I agree that a violation of this agreement will constitute grounds for my expulsion from the Academy and may also result in civil and criminal penalties." Sony told The Los Angeles Times that it turned over all data regarding the screener to the Academy, and said it would hold off on any possible legal action until the Academy's probe of the incident is completed.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-screeners13jan13,1,475011.story
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F14332E07 
http://www.oscars.org
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o Napster Parent Roxio Raising $22.5 Million, Signs Deal with Tom Petty

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Roxio, a developer of CD and DVD burning software and parent company of Napster, announced on Tuesday that it plans to raise $22.5 million in a private placement of its stock with institutional investors. The company will sell 5.5 million shares at a price of $4.10 per share, and said the proceeds will add to its working capital as it continues to expand its activities in the digital media sector. Separately, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Roxio said that its Napster unit signed a deal with artist Tom Petty to offer his songs online for sale exclusively at Napster. Songs recorded by Petty for Universal Music Group including "Into the Great Wide Open," "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Refugee" will be available for streaming and download on the Napster service.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040113/sftu060_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040112/lam112_1.html 
http://www.roxio.com
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o Supreme Court Declines to Hear Aimster File-Sharing Case

Washington -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from defunct file-sharing site Aimster (now known as Madster), which is now out of legal options and will remain shut down permanently. The site was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2001 for copyright infringement, and shut down per order of federal court injunction in December 2002. An appeal to the 7th Circuit Court was turned down in June 2003. The company, whose software piggybacked on America Online's instant messaging software, was also forced to change its name to Madster after AOL sued for trademark infringement.
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5139938.html 
http://www.madster.com
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o Smithsonian to Sell Folkways Label Catalog Online

Washington -- The Smithsonian Institution has announced that it will make the entire library of 33,000 titles released on its Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label available for purchase and download online. The non-profit partnered with Massachusetts-based micropayments firm Peppercoin to power transactions on the site, which will sell tracks for $0.99 each when it launches in April. The Folkways catalog contains many historical recordings, including some of the oldest known jazz and blues records, Appalachian music and field recordings made by ethnomusicologists of indigenous musicians from America and other countries.
http://www.folkways.si.edu 
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5139515.html
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o Beastie Boys' Defunct Grand Royal Label to Auction Assets Online

Silver Spring, Md. -- Grand Royal, the record label founded by hip-hop group the Beastie Boys in 1993 and shut down amid mounting debt in August 2001, is holding an online auction for its various assets through Bid4Assets.com. During its tenure, the label released albums from groups including Luscious Jackson, At the Drive-In, Buffalo Daughter and Atari Teenage Riot. Assets that will be sold at auction include master recordings, licensing agreements and miscellaneous merchandising agreements. Bid4Assets said the minimum bid for the items is $10,000 and the auction will continue through January 22.
http://www.grandroyal.com
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1448588/20010831/story.jhtml
http://www.bid4assets.com/grandroyal
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o Labels Sue Website for "Parallel Importing" of CDs, Undercutting Retailers

Los Angeles -- The Financial Times reports that the British High Court next month will hear a case brought by the recording industry against an online company importing cheap CDs from Asia and selling them for profit in Britain and other European markets. The British Phonographic Industry is alleging that Hong Kong-based CD Wow is engaged in "parallel importing" -- where goods are illegally imported into a region without the copyright owner's consent. The site sells CDs for an average of $7 less than is charged for the same albums in U.K. record stores, and was estimated to have sales of $184 million in 2003. CD Wow CEO Philip Robinson told the Financial Times the company will vigorously defend the lawsuit. "I would not have set the business up if there was something intrinsically wrong with it."
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-ft-cdwow12jan12,1,1217603.story
http://www.cdwow.co.uk
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o Game Publisher Ubisoft Acquires French Development Studio Tiwak

San Francisco -- Video game publisher Ubisoft announced that it has purchased French game developer Tiwak. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Tiwak has had a hand in developing games for the "Rayman" franchise, and was working on a game for Xbox called "Tork." The company's 17-member development staff will now join France-based Ubisoft's operations. Ubisoft publishes the popular "Tom Clancy Splinter Cell" game franchise, as well titles including "Uru: Ages Beyond Myst" and "Beyond Good and Evil."
http://societe.ubisoft.fr/homepress.php 
http://www.tiwak.com 
http://www.ubisoft.com
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o Report: Worldwide Ringtone Sales Up 40% to $3.5 Billion

London -- A new study by the Arc Group shows that global sales of cell phone ringtones over the last year have surged by 40% to more than $3.5 billion. What had begun as a marketing gimmick has quickly grown into a multi-billion-dollar market, equaling about 10% of the global music market, the Arc Group said. Arc Group analyst Richard Jesty said: "It's become a very profitable area, and there's strong growth ahead." The study also found that the global prices of ringtones vary widely, ranging from as little as 20 cents in South Korea to as much as $2.75 in the U.K. -- averaging out to about 60 cents per ringtone.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z4C753D07

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(Paris) French media conglomerate Vivendi Universal announced this week that it has shuffled the top management at its video games division. CEO Ken Cron has been ousted, the company said, while the posts of chairman and chief executive have been split and filled by Rene Penisson and Bruce Hack, respectively. Vivendi tried unsuccessfully to offload the division only last year.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?J5BE22C07 
http://www.vugames.com

(Redwood City, Calif.) Video game developer Electronic Arts announced on Tuesday that it has shipped its "NFL Street" title for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube to retailers. Developed by EA Tiburon, the title features 7-on-7 gameplay and players including NFL legends like Walter Payton and Barry Sanders. It also contains an original score from the X-ecutioners as well as licensed tracks from other Sony Music artists. Online play is enabled for owners of the Network Adaptor for PlayStation 2.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040113/135250_1.html 
http://www.nflstreet.com

(Geneva) The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which among other things handles domain name disputes, has ruled that Canadian website operator Alberta Hot Rods was cybersquatting when it registered the domain jrrtolkien.com. The commercial site was found to have no legitimate rights to the domain name, ownership of which will now be turned over to the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien.
http://www.wipo.int 
http://www.jrrtolkien.com

(Tempe, Ariz.) Limelight Networks, a provider of digital content delivery services, said on Tuesday that game developer Valve Software, creator of popular multiplayer titles like "Half-Life" and "Counter-Strike," will use its services to host Valve game servers and distribute its games online. Arizona-based Limelight's customers also include BuyMusic.com, RealNetworks and Radio Free Virgin.
http://www.valvesoftware.com 
http://www.limelightnetworks.com

(Atlanta) Liberate Technologies, a provider of interactive TV software and services, said on Tuesday that it has signed a subscription-based licensing agreement with cable TV operator Cox Communications. Under the terms, Atlanta-based Liberate will supply Cox with software to enable the delivery of high-definition TV, digital video recording and video-on-demand features across set-top boxes from Motorola, Scientific-Atlanta and others.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040112/sfm134_1.html 
http://www.cox.com 
http://www.liberate.com

(Washington) The Washington Post on Tuesday reported on the tremendous amount of attention being given to the looming IPO of search engine giant Google. For instance, a search of "Google IPO" on the company's own search engine produced over 14,000 results. In addition to polling analysts and investors, the article examines the potential rewards and drawbacks the company may experience as a result of going public.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11326-2004Jan12.html

(San Francisco) CNET News.com on Tuesday reported on a dispute between record labels and music publishers over royalties for the extra versions of songs contained on copy-protected, "double session" CDs, that could result in the labels owing tens of millions of dollars in back payments to publishers. Music publishers argue that labels should be paying for both the regular version of the track, which plays on a CD player, and the added digital version that can play on a PC but can't be shared online. One provider of CD copy-protection, Macrovision, estimates that it alone has already released over 200 million CDs that contain double sessions into the market.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5139762.html

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