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Canada Declares P2P Downloading Legal, Levies Tariff on MP3 Players

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:19am.
Ottawa, Canada -- In a surprise move, the Canadian Copyright Board has ruled that under current Canadian copyright law, downloading music over peer-to-peer file-sharing services like Kazaa is legal. The board said that downloading was legal if the acquired file was used as a "personal copy;" uploading files to such services, however, was not declared to be legal. Additionally, the board voted to freeze the tariffs that Canadians pay on recordable media like blank CDs -- fees that go into a fund that compensates artists and copyright holders -- at their current rates until the end of 2004. The decision ignored recording industry requests for an increase on the tariffs, as well as its desire to add recordable DVDs and computer hard drives to the list of taxed devices. However, consumers will now pay $2 per GB on hard drive-based MP3 players, with a maximum tariff of $25 for MP3 players with capacities over 10GB. The Copyright Board did not rule out a future tariff on computer hard drives, but decided in the mean time to rule in favor of the consumer.
tags: Downloads | P2P | Canada | legal | MP3 Players | Levies Tariff |

Sony, Bertelsmann Will Merge Music Divisions

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:18am.
Frankfurt -- Sony and Bertelsmann on Friday announced that they will merge their music divisions in a move designed to cut costs in the shrinking global music industry. The new company, known as Sony BMG, will be the world's second largest music group behind Universal Music. BMG Chairman Rolf Schmidt-Holtz will be chairman of the company and Sony Music Chairman Andrew Lack will be CEO. "This agreement represents a bold move to reinvent and revitalize the music business in the 21st century," said Sony Corporation of America chairman and CEO Howard Stringer. "It is a marriage of well-suited partners, who appreciate the different cultural, creative and business sensibilities around the world." The merger follows last month's agreement by a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. to buy Time Warner's music division for $2.6 billion. http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y2A665AC6
tags: Sony | Bertelsmann | Musics |

New Zealand Bans Rockstar Games' Violent Video Game "Manhunt"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:17am.
Wellington, New Zealand -- The country of New Zealand has banned video game publisher Rockstar Games' ultra-violent PlayStation 2 title "Manhunt," calling the game "injurious to the public good." Similar attempts to ban the sale of violent video games in the U.S. have run afoul of First Amendment free speech protections. The game, developed at Edinburgh, Scotland-based Rockstar North, is the first video game to be outright banned in New Zealand. "It's a game where the only thing you do is kill everybody you see," said Bill Hastings, chief censor for New Zealand's Office of Film and Literature Classification, which imposed the countrywide ban. "The only way you can accommodate the game's images is by an attitudinal shift… You have to at least acquiesce in these murders and possibly tolerate, or even move towards enjoying them, which is injurious to the public good." Controversy is not new to the company, as earlier this week it announced it would remove the line, "Kill all the Haitians" from its "Grand Theft Auto" title after complaints from Haitian groups and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. http://makeashorterlink.com/?O2F962BC6  http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=ret&aid=2707  http://www.take2games.com
tags: Games | New Zealand | Video Game | Rockstar | Manhunt |

Webcasters Challenge Bill That Would Loosen Record Label Antitrust Laws

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:16am.
Washington -- The Webcaster Alliance, a trade group made up of Internet broadcasters, announced on Friday that it has filed a legal complaint against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the five major record labels, opposing a recent bill introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would relax antitrust regulations for the recording industry. The "Enhancing Federal Obscenity Reporting and Copyright Enforcement Act of 2003" (the EnFORCE Act), the group says, would expand the existing antitrust exemption enjoyed by the recording industry to cover all compulsory mechanical licenses under section 115 of the Copyright Act. "A Federal Judge recently approved a $143 million settlement in the CD price-fixing case that was brought against the RIAA's Big 5 record label members," said Webcaster Alliance president Ann Gabriel. "Yet here they are attaching additional language to expand their antitrust exemptions to a bill they know most legislators would have a hard time opposing, since it deals with the exploitation of children. This is so typical of the RIAA and their manipulative, smoke and mirrors tactics." The Webcaster Alliance is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to rule the record labels in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, as well as for a declaratory judgment that the labels have engaged in misuse of their copyrights. http://www.webcasteralliance.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=5  http://www.webcasteralliance.com/docs/WA_complaint.pdf
tags: Antitrust | Records | Webcasters | Laws |

Interactive TV Firm YooMedia to Acquire Columbia Pictures' GoPlay TV

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:16am.
London -- YooMedia, a developer of interactive TV and wireless applications, said on Friday that it will acquire GoPlay TV, an interactive games channel, from Columbia Pictures for $11.2 million. GoPlay owns and operates an interactive games channel available on the first page of the interactive main menu on Sky Digital. The deal establishes U.K.-based YooMedia as a leading interactive content provider across all digital TV platforms in the U.K., including games, chat, dating and gaming.
tags: Columbia Pictures | YooMedia | GoPlay TV |

Asset Management Firm Schroders Takes 20% Stake in U.K. Games Firm Eidos

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:15am.
London -- Asset management firm Schroders has purchased a 19.1% stake in U.K.-based video game developer Eidos, GamesIndustry.biz reported. The investment, valued at around $61 million, makes Schroders the single largest shareholder in the company, with more than ten times the share of Eidos creative director Ian Livingstone. Eidos is responsible for creating game franchises including "Lara Croft Tomb Raider," "Hitman" and "Deus Ex." "If [Schroders] have made an investment of this size, they must think it is a good industry to be in, and if you adopt that view, then within the U.K. Eidos is one of the best ways to be involved in the games sector," analyst firm Novell Consultancy's Nicholas Lovell told GamesIndustry.biz. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=2699=  http://www.eidos.com
tags: Games | Eidos | U.K | Asset Management | Schroders |

Former EUniverse CEO Resigns from Board, Files Suit Against Company

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:13am.
Los Angeles -- Brad Greenspan, the recently departed CEO of EUniverse, a provider of entertainment-related websites and newsletters, announced on Friday his resignation from the company's board of directors, as well as the filing of a lawsuit against the company, its board and a venture capital firm that invested in the company. In the lawsuit, Greenspan alleges that "certain directors of the Board have embarked upon a scheme to entrench themselves in office… breach[ing] their fiduciary duties to the company." Greenspan also alleges that the terms of San Bruno, Calif.-based VantagePoint Venture Partners' recent $8 million investment in EUniverse "may have a material adverse impact on the company's ability to relist its common stock on The Nasdaq SmallCap Market." http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/031212/49649.html 
tags: CEO | Resigns | Board | Files | EUniverse |

Bertelsmann Found Liable Over Sale of AOL Europe

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:11am.
Gutesloh, Germany -- Bertelsmann on Friday said that a verdict handed out on Thursday by a California jury in the lawsuit brought against the company by former AOL Europe executives Jan Henric Buettner and Andreas von Blottnitz was "incomprehensible." Bertelsmann, Germany's largest media company, may have to pay damages of 250 million dollars after the jury said the company was liable for not giving the two former managers a share of the proceeds from the sale of Bertelsmann's half of AOL Europe. During the trial, Bertelsmann argued that von Blottnitz and Buettner misinterpreted their contracts. http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z29615AC6
tags: Europe | Bertelsmann | AOL | Liable |