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EMI to Cut 20% of Workforce, Drop 20% of Artists from Record Label

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2004 - 3:52am.
London -- Major record label EMI announced on Wednesday that it will cut 20% of its global workforce and eliminate one in five of its roster acts, as part of a restructuring that will also see the company largely outsource its CD manufacturing needs. EMI said 900 of the 1,500 total layoffs will come from the closure of manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Europe, including one in Illinois. The company did not disclose which artists would be dropped from the label, but said that they are "largely niche and under-performing artists," and that "the roster is being rebalanced to focus resources and efforts more effectively on the artists who have the greatest potential on both a global and local level." EMI expects the restructuring to save the company $91.5 million a year.
tags: Artists | EMI | Record Label | Workforce |

Head of French Record Industry Says File-Swapper Lawsuits Looming

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2004 - 3:51am.
Paris -- The head of France's record label trade group said that lawsuits against individual music file-swappers would be filed shortly in the country, on the same day that an international record label trade group filed 247 suits against alleged pirates in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada, Reuters reported. "We will do the same thing in France in the coming weeks or months. Whatever happens, lawsuits against Internet users are inevitable," Herve Rony, head of France's SNEP (Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique), told Reuters. In addition to prosecuting file-swappers, France will also go after Internet service providers, utilizing a law that will go into effect shortly that asks them to filter copyrighted content on their networks. "We have a two lines of fire: taking action against individual Internet users does not imply we will not act against service providers to oblige them to filter," Rony added.
tags: Lawsuits | French | File-Swapper | Record Industry |

Microsoft Drops Xbox Sports Game Releases for Year, Cites Quality Issues

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2004 - 3:50am.
Redmond, Wash. -- Microsoft has announced that it will not publish previously announced sports games for its Xbox video game console under its XSN Sports brand, citing quality issues with the titles, according to published reports. "We're focused on closing the quality gap between our sports line-up and that of our competitors," Microsoft Game Studios' Kevin Browne told Reuters. "Therefore we will not be shipping new versions of our sports games this fall." Microsoft said that it will resume publishing XSN Sports titles, such as "NFL Fever," "NBA Inside Drive" and "NHL Rivals," in 2005. The company will still publish a lone XSN Sports title yet this year, when "RalliSport Challenge 2" is released in May.
tags: Games | Sports | Xbox | Microsoft | Year | Cites Quality |

Fidelity Restriction Talks Delay Sale of Samsung MP3 Phones in Korea

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2004 - 3:47am.
Seoul -- The Korea Herald reported on Wednesday that the Korean recording industry is demanding that cell phones that can download and play MP3 music files support only radio-quality sound, to deter potential piracy. Bowing to pressure from groups including the Korea Association of Phonogram Producers and Korea Music Copyright Association, Samsung decided to delay release of its MP3 Anycall handset this week while it negotiates with the Korean record industry over degrading the sound quality of recordings to below 96 kbps. "Our industry has been in a nose-dive since the release of MP3 players in 2000. At that time, we felt hopeless because Korean people were insensitive to copyright issues and we did not have any unified organization that could cope with the situation," Yoon Seong-woo, a director of the Korea Association of Phonogram Producers, told The Korea Herald. "Because the MP3 phone market is big enough to destroy the music industry, we're struggling to defend it."
tags: Korea | MP3 | Samsung | Phones | Fidelity Restriction |

Digital Envoy Suing Google Over Patent

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2004 - 3:47am.
Mountain View, Calif. -- Digital Envoy, a Georgia-based provider of technology that enables companies to uncover geographical information about online users based solely on their IP addresses, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Mountain View-based Google, the Internet search engine provider. Digital Envoy is alleging that Google is using its technology improperly to place advertisements on third-party web site, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. The license between the two companies restricts Google from using the technology for purposes other than search and from using it on other web sites, a Digital Envoy attorney told the newspaper. "Last year, Google got in the business of advertising," Kratz said. "When they did that, they took our technology with them... They've been making money on it. We haven't." He said the lawsuit probably will seek multi-millions of dollars in damages.
tags: Google | Digital Envoy | Suing |