archives

o Copy-Protection on New Celine Dion CD Crashing European Computers
o Bertelsmann To Cut $1 Billion Advertising Deal With Terra Lycos
o Judge Denies One Motion to Dismiss Case Against Russian Firm Elcomsoft
o Report: MHP Interactive TV Standard Will Reach 42% of Homes by 2008
o Australian Public Vending Machines Offering Cheap CD Copying
> Digital Media Wire Panel Series: Interactive Television | L.A., S.F., NYC
o Briefly Noted: Liberate CEO - Microsoft trial, MusicMatch, DivXNetworks
- Fraunhofer, BBC World Service - New York Times Digital, META Group,
Sharman Networks - Brilliant Digital - Kazaa, CARP - small webcasters,
"EverQuest" - suicide
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o Copy-Protection on New Celine Dion CD Crashing European Computers

Los Angeles -- Copy-protection technology included on Sony Music artist
Celine Dion's new CD "A New Day Has Come" is causing European users'
computers to crash when inserted into CD-ROM drives, according to an
article in The Hollywood Reporter. Sony included Key2Audio CD
copy-protection technology developed by its Austrian Sony DACD unit on
discs released in Germany and some other European countries. The discs
include a warning both on the jewel case and on the actual disc that the
CD will not play on a PC or Mac. "The CD will probably cause a system to
crash, but it will not alter anything," a Sony spokesperson told THR. Sony
reports that over 10 million CDs containing Key2Audio technology have been
released thus far, mostly in Europe.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/bpihw/20020403/en_bpihw/dion
_s_new_cd_crashing_party_for_some_users&printer=1
http://www.key2audio.com
http://www.sonydadc.com
_____________________________________________

o Bertelsmann To Cut $1 Billion Advertising Deal With Terra Lycos

Waltham, Mass. -- German media giant Bertelsmann plans to renegotiate a
$675 million online advertising deal with Terra Lycos, the Financial Times
reported. Bertelsmann signed a $1 billion advertising deal with Terra
Lycos in 2000 in the midst of the Internet boom. The first part of that
agreement, which covered $325 million in advertising and related services,
expires in October of this year. Bertelsmann has an option on the second
part of the agreement, which it expects to scale back because online
adverting rates have dropped significantly. "One billion dollars is a lot,
particularly since the price for advertising has decreased so
dramatically," a Bertelsmann spokesman told the Financial Times.
http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020402001213
_____________________________________________

o Judge Denies One Motion to Dismiss Case Against Russian Firm Elcomsoft

San Francisco -- U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte has denied a
motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the U.S. government against Russian
software firm Elcomsoft, which is accused of violating the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Reuters reported. Elcomsoft sells a
program that can circumvent the copyright controls on Adobe's eBook
Reader, an act that is not illegal in its home country but is a criminal
act under the DMCA. Elcomsoft had argued in its motion that the U.S.
should not have jurisdiction over the company, as it is based in Russia
and does business over the Internet. The judge said in his ruling that
there was enough business conducted by the company in the U.S. for him to
preside over the matter. "Purchasers obtained copies of the program in the
United States... Payments were directed to, and received by, an entity in
the United States," Judge Whyte said in his ruling. Elcomsoft has filed
several other motions the judge is still considering, including one that
asks that the DMCA be declared unconstitutional because of its vagueness.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/2984982.htm
http://www.elcomsoft.com
_____________________________________________

o Report: MHP Interactive TV Standard Will Reach 42% of Homes by 2008

Boston, Mass. -- The new MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) standard for
developing interactive services for digital television will not initially
be a factor, but will account for just under half of the market by 2008,
according to a recently published report from Massachusetts-based research
firm Strategy Analytics. Currently, the first MHP-based services are being
launched in Finland and Korea. Technology costs and the reluctance of
digital TV operators to adopt the MHP standard will mean it will reach
only 8 percent of the market by 2005, but by 2008 178 million set-top
boxes will use the standard, or 42 percent of the total market. "MHP will
not turn interactive television into an open, horizontal market, as many
hope," said Nick Griffiths, director of Strategy Analytics' broadband
entertainment strategies service. "But it will lead to increased
efficiencies across the advanced television value chain, benefiting most
players to some extent."
http://www.strategyanalytics.com/press/PRNG003.htm
_____________________________________________

o Australian Public Vending Machines Offering Cheap CD Copying

Adelaide, Australia -- Australian consumers are now able to go to their
local convenience stores and use vending machines equipped with CD copying
technology to make copies of music albums or software, Australian
newspaper The Advertiser reported on Wednesday. The Copy Cat CD
Duplication machines charge $5 per CD for the service, for which consumers
must purchase and provide a blank CD-R, costing about $2. The machines are
able to operate under the same legal guidelines as do photocopiers, which
put the burden of complying with copyright laws on users of the machines,
rather than their manufacturers or owners of the stores in which they are
located. "If people ask, we tell them it is illegal to break copyrights
and there are warnings on the machines -- but what they copy is up to
them," one convenience store owner told The Advertiser.
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,4062427%255E2682,00.html
_____________________________________________

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VirtualMedia Partners 'interactiveTV Global RoadShow'

Due to remarkable success of the iTV Spring RoadShow, VirtualMedia is
running a series of six updated events in the summer and fall of 2002. The
revised agenda was compiled with the aid of an advisory panel of industry
experts and covers topics as diverse as t-commerce and the consumer
lifecycle to interactive horizontal marketing and proof of concepts in the
interactiveTV space - but this time with a global reach, including Asia,
Japan and the far east Exclusive networking, with the limited number
attendance of 70 delegates. Special Early Booking Discount

http://www.virtualmediapartners.com/globalroadshow
yaqub@virtualmediapartners.com
Tel: 917 432 2906

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STREAMING MEDIA WEST 2002 - April 23-26, Los Angeles Convention Center

**EXHIBITION (FREE with pre-registration)*** Experience the tricks behind
the trade and find today's business solutions, as the most cutting-edge,
industry leading companies showcase the latest in streaming and digital
media advancements.

***CONFERENCE*** The comprehensive Conference program focuses on the key components in this space: Streaming in the Enterprise, Digital Media and
Entertainment, Streaming Applications and Tools and Technology.

For full Conference information and registration and your FREE Exhibition
pass visit http://www.streamingmedia.com/west
Or contact register@streamingmedia.com or 888 301-8890

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o Briefly Noted:

(Washington) Reuters reported on Wednesday on comments made by Mitchell
Kertzman, CEO of interactive TV software firm Liberate Technologies, that
attempted to curry favor with Microsoft by voicing his support of the
company in its ongoing antitrust lawsuit with the government -- in
exchange for favorable business deals with Liberate. Emails cited in court
showed that shortly following Liberate's offer to acquire rival
Microsoft's interactive TV software unit, Kertzman offered to tell
journalists that he no longer supported a Microsoft break-up. Kertzman has
testified in the antitrust trial that Microsoft levies its power to
influence cable TV operators to exclusively use its own operating system
software -- called middleware -- that runs on set-top boxes used to
deliver interactive TV services.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-874153.html
http://www.liberate.com

(San Diego) MusicMatch, a developer of digital audio software, announced
on Wednesday that it has named Peter Csathy as president and chief
operating officer. Before joining MusicMatch, Csathy served as COO of ENow
and also was a senior vice president at Universal Studios. San Diego-based
MusicMatch also said on Wednesday that it has attained cash-flow positive
status, resulting from revenue obtained from software sales, advertising
and its digital music subscription service, which now claims 120,000
subscribers.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/220930069&ticker=
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/220930070&ticker=
http://www.musicmatch.com

(San Diego) DivXNetworks, a developer of video compression technology,
announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with the Fraunhofer Center
for Research in Computer Graphics, an American division of the Fraunhofer
Institute -- which developed the MP3 format. Under the agreement, the two
groups will jointly develop and integrate digital rights management
solutions for digital video and audio. "We have taken a component-oriented
approach to digital security that allows us to easily integrate
best-of-breed technologies, and combining the video watermarking
technology we have developed with the cutting-edge audio watermarking
techniques developed by Fraunhofer is a logical next step," said
DivXNetworks CEO Jordan Greenhall.
http://www.divxnetworks.com
http://www.crcg.edu

(New York) New York Times Digital said on Wednesday that it will offer
links to streaming audio news from BBC World Service on NYTimes.com.
Content will include two one-hour news show channels and a five-minute
news update channel produced by the BBC World Service.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020403/32230_1.html
http://www.nytimes.com/international
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice

(Stamford, Conn.) META Group, a technology research and consulting firm,
has announced the resignation of Mike Levine as its president. "Levine is
leaving the company for personal reasons and to pursue other
opportunities," the company said in a statement. Dale Kutnick, the
company's CEO and co-research director, will assume Levine's
responsibilities until a successor is named.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020401/12541_1.html
http://www.metagroup.com/

(San Francisco) CNET on Wednesday featured a comment from the new owner of
the Kazaa file-sharing program, Sharman Networks, regarding the inclusion
of software in downloads of Kazaa that can be used to harness the
computing power of Kazaa users and sold out to third parties. The
software, called Altnet, was developed by Los Angeles-based Brilliant
Digital. "Nothing from [Brilliant Digital] has been downloaded which
breaches Sharman's or industry standards of users' privacy protection,"
Sharman Networks CEO Nicola Henning told CNET. "Brilliant Digital has
simply acted in 'much the same way that major software publishers such as
AOL, Microsoft and RealNetworks [do to] deploy components for future
functions.'"
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-875016.html?tag=cd_mh

(San Francisco) Online magazine Salon.com on Wednesday published reader
responses to a story it ran on the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel
(CARP), which will establish royalty rates webcasters will pay record
labels and artists, and the effect the rates will have on small
independent webcasters. The responses included a point-counterpoint
between Stephen Marks, senior vice president of legal affairs for the
Recording Industry of America, and Brian Zisk, formerly with independent
webcaster Green Witch Internet Radio and a founder of the Future of Music
Coalition.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/03/web_radio_redux/index.html

(San Francisco) Wired News on Wednesday reported on the legal actions of a
mother whose son -- an avid player of Sony Online Entertainment's
"EverQuest" online roleplaying game -- committed suicide while seated at
his computer last year. The mother of deceased 21-year-old Wisconsin
native Shawn Woolley is preparing to sue Sony, which has refused to
release details of Woolley's game playing that could provide some motive
for his suicide. "He quit his job the week before he did this and played
[EverQuest] the whole week, and I want to see if there was something that
made him do this because he didn't have any major crises in his life,"
Elizabeth Woolley told Wired News.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,51490,00.html
http://www.everquest.com
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>DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE PANEL DISCUSSION SERIES:
"iTV: New Interactive Services Fuel Big Expectations
Slow Market Penetration Raises Questions: How Big is iTV Going to Be?"

Register by clicking on the links below to join leading executives and
professionals at our upcoming iTV breakfast panels in Los Angeles, San
Francisco and New York.

LA: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=21549&Referrer_id=4074
SF: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=21550&Referrer_id=4074
NYC: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=21551&Referrer_id=4074

========================================================
LOS ANGELES: Tuesday, April 16, 2002, Four Seasons Hotel, Beverly Hills
========================================================
Moderator: Ken Rutkowski, Founder and CEO, KenRadio.com
Stephen Condon, SVP and CMO, Intertainer
K.C. Hildreth, COO, GoldPocket Interactive
Steve Hoffman, CEO, Spiderdance
Mark Kapczynski, Principal, Media & Entertainment Solutions Group,
Microsoft
David Nathanson, VP of Broadband Strategy & Channel Development, Fox Cable
Networks

Sponsored by: LARTA
For more information and to register for the Los Angeles event:
http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=21549&Referrer_id=4074

========================================================
SAN FRANCISCO: Wednesday, April 17, 2002, City Club of San Francisco
========================================================
Moderator: Sean Badding, VP and Senior Analyst, The Carmel Group
Martijn Lopes Cardozo, VP of Product Management, GoldPocket Interactive
Mitchell Linden, Head of Operations - North America, BBC Technology
Bill Niemeyer, Founder, Centrimedia (former Director, Strategic Dev.,
Spiderdance)
Peter Schultz, Director of Business Development, PopTV Program, Liberate
Bridget Steele, Business Development Manager, Microsoft TV

For more information and to register for the San Francisco event:
http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=21550&Referrer_id=4074

=========================================================
NEW YORK: Thursday, April 25, 2002, Cornell Club of New York City
=========================================================
Moderator: Art Cohen, SVP, Advertising, ACTV
Patrick Donoghue, VP, Interactive Television, Cablevision
Gerard Kunkel, President, WorldGate
Christopher S. Lucas, VP & Exec. Producer, Digital Media Group, Showtime
Networks
Rod A. Nenner, Director, TV & Entertainment Solutions Group, America
Online
Carla Sinatra, Vice President of Business Development, NBC
Todd Krieger, Senior Manager, Business Development, Microsoft TV

Sponsored by: WorldGate
For more information and to register for the New York event:
http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=21551&Referrer_id=4074

Sponsorships and Inquiries:
Ned Sherman at 323.464.0793 or esherman@digitalmediawire.com
Paul Sherman at psherman@digitalmediawire.com

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