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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- August 24, 2000
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o Online Publisher Questia Raises $90 Million
o IBM Moving Into Video Production
o As Trial Date Nears, MP3.com Still In Talks With Universal
o Song-Pro.com Settles Lawsuit With Nintendo
o Online Gambling Firm Silicon Gaming Raises $7.6 Million
o Briefly Noted: Macromedia – Flash 5, E-books – Simon & Schuster,
Lucent Digital Radio – USA Digital Radio – iBiquity,
SteveGranitz.com, Digital Coast 2000, iNews, MCY.com,
ClubSonyMusic.com, SoftOrbit.com, RealNetworks
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o Online Academic Publisher Questia Raises $90 Million
Houston, TX -- Questia Media, Inc., a Texas-based provider of academic
research material on the Internet, today announced that it has raised $90
million in its second round of funding. OppenheimerFunds led the round;
other investors included Bulldog Capital Management, Palmetto Partners,
and TA Associates. Houston-based Questia Media, which is targeting the
university market, said it plans to provide online access to hundreds of
thousands of books, journals, periodicals and other research materials.
Over the past five months the company has raised $130 million.
http://www.questia.com/press4.html
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o IBM Moving Into Video Production
Armonk, NY -- As part of its expansion into video production, IBM said on
Thursday that it will begin pre-installing a number of video-editing
products on certain of its high-end work stations. The software is
developed by Massachusetts-based Avid Xpress, a software company focusing
on digital media. It allows users to create content, play streaming media
files, and upload multimedia programs to the web.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000824/ma_avid.html
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o As Trial Date Nears, MP3.com Still In Talks With Universal
New York -- As an Aug. 28th court date nears, MP3.com is still in
settlement talks with Seagram's Universal Music Group over a copyright
infringement lawsuit filed by the record company. MP3.com, an Internet
music company allowing users to download music, has already settled with
Sony, Time Warner, EMI Group and Bertelsmann. The record companies sued
MP3.com, claiming that its My.MP3.com service violated their copyrights.
If MP3.com is unable to reach a settlement agreement with Universal, a
federal judge will decide the damages that MP3.com must pay. Bloomberg
reported that U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York ruled that for
purposes of determining damages, the copyright works in the case are the
CDs that MP3.com has made available for Internet users to download, not
the individual songs contained on those CDs. Bloomberg said this ruling
has lowered MP3.com’s potential liability.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?s=AOaRFwxSITVAzLmNv&T=marketsquote99_news.ht
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o Song-Pro.com Settles Lawsuit With Nintendo
Palo Alto, Calif. -- Song-Pro.com, the developer of a digital music player
that was formerly called Songboy.com, announced that it has settled a
lawsuit filed by Nintendo of America, Inc. Palo Alto-based Song-Pro
created the Songboy.com digital music player for Nintendo's Game Boy
player; Nintendo accused the company of violating its intellectual
property because of the similarity of the names. Under the terms of the
settlement, Songboy.com changed its name to Song-Pro.com and Nintendo
granted the company a patent license.
http://www.songboy.com/
http://www.nintendo.com
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o Online Gambling Firm Silicon Gaming Raises $7.6 Million
Las Vegas, NV -- Silicon Gaming, Inc., a Palo Alto-based designer of
gambling products and game applications, today announced the formation of
a new subsidiary, called WagerWorks, Inc. that will work with MGM Mirage.
The new company plans to create an online gambling site using the MGM
Mirage brand. WagerWorks also announced that it has raised $7.6 million in
its latest venture capital round. The source of the funding was not
disclosed.
http://www.silicongaming.com
http://www.mirageresorts.com
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o Briefly Noted:
(San Francisco) Macromedia, Inc. today announced that its Flash 5
software, which is one of the most popular programs for digital media
developers, is now available for download on its web site. The software
will be available in stores in early September. Macromedia said versions
in Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Swedish
will be available in about two months.
http://www.macromedia.com/store
(New York) CNET reported on Thursday that major publishing houses are
"laying the groundwork for digital book sales," although the technology
for reading the electronic books may be lagging. The article said that
Simon & Schuster will make its e-books available on multiple platforms,
including Microsoft Reader, Glassbook, Gemstar's Rocket eBook and
SoftBook, NetLibrary's Peanut Press, and Softlock.com.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2596998.html?pt.yfin.cat_fin.txt.ne
(Columbia, Md.) Lucent Digital Radio and USA Digital Radio, developers of
digital radio broadcasting, today announced the completion of their merger
after receiving clearance from the Department of Justice and the Federal
Trade Commission to form iBiquity Digital Corporation. Investors in the
new company include Lucent Technologies, Viacom’s Infinity Broadcasting
Corporation and Clear Channel Communications, Inc. The new company will
develop software that will allow radio broadcasters to send audio and data
content through digital signals, resulting in CD-quality audio and other
services.
http://www.ibiquitydigital.com/
(New York) InfoPost, a New York-based digital e-commerce company, today
announced the launch of SteveGranitz.com, a web site that sells digital
photos of celebrities online. SteveGranitz.com contains over 25,000
celebrity photos taken by Los Angeles journalists Steve Granitz and Jeff
Vespa. "Steve Granitz and Jeff Vespa are two of the most respected veteran
photographers in the Hollywood community," said Jason Nevader, CEO of
InfoPost.
http://www.infopost.com
(New York) Rising Tide Studios today announced the speakers and agenda
for Digital Coast 2000, a three-day conference in Los Angeles that will
explore the digital transformation of the entertainment industry. The
speakers will include Bill Gross, idealab CEO, Mark Cuban, founder of
Broadcast.com, Hilary Rosen, CEO of RIAA, and David Lynch, movie director.
The event is scheduled for September 12 - 14 at the Directors Guild of
America in Los Angeles.
http://www.digitalcoastdaily.com/
(Madison, Wis.) Avstar Systems LLC, a Wisconsin-based provider of
newsroom computer systems, today announced that the company has changed
its name to iNews. Avstar said the new name is part of its focus on
"convergence newscasting" software for the Internet.
http://www.inewsroom.com
(New York) MCY.com, Inc., a New York-based online music service provider,
today announced the appointment of Larry Stessel as president of its music
division. Stessel previously held management positions with EMI, Sony,
Mercury, and Epic.
http://www.mcy.com/
(New York) Sony Music Entertainment today launched clubsonymusic.com, a
web site focusing on dance music.
http://www.clubsonymusic.com
(Los Angeles, Calif.) The World Wide Motion Pictures Corporation (WWMP),
a film production company, today announced a licensing agreement with
SoftOrbit.com for the Internet webcasting of its titles.
http://www.softorbit.com
(Seattle, WA) RealNetworks, Inc., an online media delivery company, today
announced that Phil Murphy has joined the company as senior vice president
of its international division. Murphy formerly held the position of senior
vice president of Sony Music Entertainment.
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