San Diego – Sony (NYSE: SNE) announced on
Thursday that it plans to release its Reader e-book reader device in several
new markets, including Asia/Pacific nations Japan,
China and Australia this
year. The Reader, already available in the U.S.
and Canada, as well as the U.K., France,
Germany, the Netherlands, Austria
and Switzerland, will also
expand availability to Spain
and Italy.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/wuqk2
Littleton,
Mass. – LiveWire Mobile, a
provider of content management and delivery services, on Thursday announced
plans to introduce a new DRM-free mobile music download service it says will
offer songs from all four major labels. The company said two North American
wireless carriers are expected to launch the service later this year, which
will let users purchase and download DRM-free tracks, as well as ringtones and
mobile applications.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/wuqyi
Los Angeles
– A convicted file-swapper is appealing her case to the U.S. Supreme Court,
arguing that her defense of being an "innocent infringer" should have
been accepted by an appeals court, and the damages amount reduced, according to
the Copyrights & Campaigns blog. Whitney Harper was 16 years old in 2004,
when she was sued by the recording industry for allegedly sharing songs on a
file-sharing network.
Harper’s innocent infringer defense rested on the idea
that she believed file-sharing was akin to Internet radio, and not a violation
of copyrights.
The lower court accepted this defense and granted summary
judgment for the record labels, ordering her to pay $7,400 ($200 per song) for
sharing 37 songs.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed this ruling,
saying Harper should be liable for greater damages due to the copyright notices
on CDs, and ordered her to pay $27,500 ($750 per song).
In their petition for a
hearing before the Supreme Court, Harper’s attorneys note that the digital
files she was said to be sharing carried no copyright notice, as CDs do.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/wuor2
(Copyrights & Campaigns)
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/innocent-infringer-riaa/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32060955/Harper-Petition-for-certiorari
Los Angeles
– News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) Fox Mobile unit on Thursday launched a beta version of Bitbop, a
new streaming video application that will offer streaming TV content from 25
partners, according to reports.
The service is currently only available for
BlackBerry users, although versions are coming for the iPhone and Android
handsets.
While some content will be available for free, access to Bitbop’s full
catalog is $9.99 per month.
Content partners at launch include NBC, CBS, MTV,
Bravo, Food Network, Lifetime and National Geographic Channel.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/wumxl
(PaidContent)
Washington – Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) has petitioned the
Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to place
conditions on their prospective approval of Comcast (NASD: CMCSA) and NBC Universal’s (NYSE: GE)
proposed venture, including requiring Comcast to divest its stake in video
portal Hulu within a year, Broadcasting & Cable reported. Kohl, who chairs
the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, noted in the letter that the deal "has
the potential for serious anticompetitive and anti-consumer effects."
In addition
to the Hulu divestiture, Kohl is seeking concessions that both companies won’t
discriminate against competitors and independent producers on their combined
platform, and consent to binding arbitration in retransmission disputes.
Kohl
also argues for a condition that access to NBC content online not be tied to
subscribing to a particular cable TV provider.
In an official response, Comcast
called its proposed venture with NBC Universal "pro-competitive,
pro-consumer and in the public interest."
The FCC is slated to re-start
its examination of the deal next week, while the Justice Department’s review is
ongoing.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/wulc6
(Broadcasting & Cable)
http://snipurl.com/wuly4
(DMW previous coverage)
San Jose,
Calif. – ActiveVideo Networks, a
developer of cloud-based interactive TV services, announced on Thursday that it
has filed patent claims in federal court against Verizon (NYSE: VZ), alleging its FiOS TV
service infringes on five ActiveVideo patents.
San Jose,
Calif.-based ActiveVideo says its CloudTV service, currently available in
around 5 million homes, "combines Web-based media and targeted, clickable
advertisements with the high-quality video, immediate responsiveness and remote
control navigation of television for uniform interactivity across all digital
and IPTV set-tops, CI+ enabled televisions, and broadband-connected CE devices."
The ActiveVideo patents in question related to the lawsuit describe a "Cable
Television System With Remote Interactive Processor;" "Interactive
And Conventional Television Information System;" "Home Interface
Controller for Providing Interactive Cable Television;" "Interactive
Home Information System with Signal Assignment;" and "Interactive
Cable Television System With Frame Server."
"Since its inception,
ActiveVideo Networks has pioneered the development of technologies for
interactive television such as Video On Demand and Web content on
television," said CEO Jeff Miller.
"ActiveVideo Networks respects the
intellectual property rights of others and has no choice but to insist that
Verizon do the same."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/wuk3x
Los Angeles
– File-sharing service LimeWire, which earlier this month was found guilty in
federal court of copyright infringement, has asked the court to reconsider its
decision, arguing that it flawed in its legal analysis of the case, according
to The Hollywood Reporter. The court found both LimeWire, and founder and
majority shareholder Mark Groton guilty of copyright infringement.
LimeWire
argues in its motion for reconsideration that the court "made errors in
its analysis of liability, including whether the company had the ability to supervise
copyright infringement," according to THR’s coverage.
"LimeWire also
says the court reached its conclusions for summary judgment without properly
considering conflicting evidence and giving it the benefit of the doubt, as
required at the summary judgment phase."
In the intervening weeks since
the ruling, LimeWire has been working to apply a filter that would block copyrighted
works, and CEO Zeeshan Zaidi told Wired.com the company has even been talking
to labels about licensing their content for the service.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/wuj0d
(THR)
http://snipurl.com/wuj1x
(Recording Industry vs. The People)
http://snipurl.com/wuj3h
(DMW previous coverage)
http://snipurl.com/wt4qc
(DMW previous coverage)
New York
– While Viacom (NYSE: VIA) has received support from fellow media conglomerates Disney (NYSE: DIS),
Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) and NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) in its $1 billion copyright suit against
YouTube (NASD: GOOG), four Internet giants — eBay (NASD: EBAY), Facebook, IAC (NASD: IACI) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) — have now
filed friend of the court briefs in support of YouTube.
The four technology
firms argue in their brief that, should the court side with Viacom and find
YouTube liable for the copyrighted videos posted by its users, "fear of
liability could discourage many Internet service providers from developing
platforms for use by the public at large."
Viacom filed its $1 billion
copyright suit against YouTube in 2007.
In recent weeks, documents from the
discovery portion of the proceedings have begun emerging, providing fascinating
details about the early days of YouTube, acquisition offers, and embarrassing
statements from both sides.
Related Links:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118019881.html
Silver Spring,
Md. – Discovery Communications (NASD: DISCA),
the cable programmer behind networks such as the Discovery Channel, TLC and
Animal Planet, said that it plans to raise $3 billion through a massive notes
offering.
The company has priced $850 million of notes due in 2015, $1.3 billion
due in 2020 and another $850 million due in 2040. The sale is expected to close
next Thursday.
The company said that it will use $1.9 billion of the proceeds,
plus cash on hand, to prepay outstanding amounts under a pair of term loans due
in 2014.
It will also use another $1.05 billion to prepay outstanding principal
on senior notes.
Shares of Discovery were up 2% in Thursday’s midday trading on
the Nasdaq.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/wugwt
