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Court Tosses Suit Brought by ReplayTV Owners Against Studios, Networks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 12, 2004 - 3:48am.
San Francisco -- A federal court has thrown out a case brought by owners of ReplayTV personal video recorders against Hollywood movie studios and TV networks, which asked for a ruling declaring that device features like skipping commercials and forwarding shows to other ReplayTV owners are legal. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper on Friday ruled that essentially there was no need for a "declaratory" ruling because Hollywood had already dropped its case against ReplayTV maker Sonicblue, so ReplayTV owners had no legitimate fear of being sued. The ruling did not legalize the controversial features however, which were deleted from newer ReplayTV devices when Sonicblue was acquired by the parent company of Japanese consumer electronics firms Denon and Marantz.
tags: Law | Court | Studios | Networks | Tosses |

Report: Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) Handheld to Sell for Around $400

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 12, 2004 - 3:47am.
London -- Sony Europe president Chris Deering has hinted that pricing for the upcoming Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) -- the company's foray into the handheld game market currently dominated by Nintendo's $99 Game Boy Advance -- would be in the range of around $400, GamesIndustry.biz reported. Deering said that Sony intends to generate a profit from the device on hardware alone. "We want to make it affordable for publishers to produce a wide range of entertainment and so royalties will be lower down in the mix this time round," Deering told U.K. trade paper MCV. Sony Computer Entertainment vice president Masutsuka Saeki said the PSP is planned for release in mid-December.
tags: Reports | Handheld | Portable | Sony PlayStation |

Dell, HP Back Sony's Blue-ray Higher-Capacity DVD Standard

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 12, 2004 - 3:46am.
Amsterdam -- PC makers Dell and HP have endorsed the new Blu-ray DVD standard, which will provide for up to four hours of high-definition video on a single disc, Reuters reported. The two companies' endorsement of the Blu-ray standard -- also backed by Hitachi, LG, Philips, Sony and Thomson -- is a blow to backers of a competing blue-laser DVD technology created by Japanese firms NEC and Toshiba. However, for its part the competing standard has won support from the DVD Forum, a group of 220 DVD player makers and media firms.
tags: Sony | DVD | HP | Dell | Blue-ray |

Report: Ringtone "Fad" Has Peaked, Though Mobile Music Market Still Hot

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 12, 2004 - 3:45am.
Basingstoke, England -- A new report predicts that the burgeoning market for cell phone ringtones has already peaked, and the "fad" will gradually decline in popularity as the overall mobile music market grows. England-based Juniper Research forecasts that ringtone revenues will decline from $1 billion in 2003 to $490 million by 2008; in contrast, the firm says direct revenues from distributing master recordings of songs over cellular networks will grow to $560 million by 2008. "The ringtone market is already showing signs of being a passing fad, and is in many social groups, already consider 'naff' and annoying," said Juniper Research senior analyst Paul Skeldon. "The use of the mobile channel to distribute master recordings of music is however one that is being eyed with considerable interest by both the mobile and music industries… there is growing interest in using mobile as a way of selling music promo material to encourage the purchase of more traditional 'hard copy' music."
tags: Mobile | Reports | Ringtone | Musics | Fad |

Adobe Adds Anti-Counterfeiting Security Software to Photoshop

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 12, 2004 - 3:44am.
Washington -- Adobe Systems, developer of the popular Photoshop graphics editing software, acknowledged that it has embedded software into its programs -- at the behest of the government and international banks -- that defeats attempts to copy currency, the Associated Press reported. Adobe said that it could not provide details on the software, which it said only slowed down its own applications by a fraction of a second. The currency anti-counterfeit software was created by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, a consortium of 27 central banks in the United States, Japan and various European nations.
tags: Adobe | Software | Anti-Counterfeiting | Photoshop |

U.K. Wireless Carriers to Protect Children from Pedophiles, Gambling

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 12, 2004 - 3:42am.
London -- The Top 6 wireless carriers in the U.K. on Monday agreed to follow new regulations designed to protect children from pornography and gambling, new media reported. Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Virgin, Vodafone and 3 will now block children who buy the latest mobile phones from viewing pornography or gambling on their handsets. Under the new regulations, you must be 18 years old or older to get unlimited Internet access. The move comes largely in response to recent reports conducted by child-protection charities showing that pedophiles are using the Internet increasingly to meet children.
tags: Gambling | Children | U.K. Wireless | Pedophiles |