Archives

EU Copyright Directive Passes; Late Amendment Could Protect File-Sharing

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 9, 2004 - 6:33am.
Brussels -- The European Parliament has voted to pass the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, an anti-piracy law covering media and other goods that will apply to all countries in the European Union. The directive originally would have included clauses that allowed copyright holders to target individual file-swappers with infringement claims, much like the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. However, a late amendment added to the law could restrict civil lawsuits to large-scale commercial counterfeiters and pirates of CDs and movies, protecting individuals who download music and other media "in good faith" for their own personal use. Civil liberties groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that even with the late amendment, the law as passed could still leave individual file-swappers open to litigation from copyright holders. Following final approval of the Enforcement Directive by EU minister, member states will have 18 months to implement their own versions of the laws.
tags: Copyright | File-Sharing | EU | Directive | Amendment |

RealNetworks Sues Major League Baseball Over Streaming Formats

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 9, 2004 - 6:32am.
Seattle -- RealNetworks announced on Tuesday that it has filed suit against the new media division of Major League Baseball (MLB), over a contract that provides for baseball broadcasts to be delivered over the Internet in RealNetworks' media format. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to compel MLB.com to stream games in RealNetworks' format, as laid out in a February 2004 contract with Major League Baseball Advanced Media. The two companies have worked together since 2001, when MLB signed a three-year, $20 million deal to use RealNetworks technology to power delivery of all of its audio and video feeds of baseball games. The two companies failed to renew that larger contract recently, and MLB has since been seeking a new partner for delivering its games online.
tags: Baseball | RealNetworks | Formats | Major League |

Judge Rules RIAA Can't Consolidate "John Doe" Suits Against File-Swappers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 9, 2004 - 6:31am.
Philadelphia -- A federal judge on Friday put a kink in one of the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) legal campaigns against alleged file-swappers when he ruled the RIAA must file separate "John Doe" lawsuits against 203 individual file-swappers instead of grouping them all into a single suit. The record industry was forced to begin filing "John Doe" lawsuits after a federal judge ruled in December its previous expedited subpoena process for revealing the names of alleged infringers from their Internet service providers was illegal. On Friday, Judge Clarence Newcomer of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania allowed a single suit to be filed, against "John Doe" #1, for whom the RIAA provided additional details. The RIAA must now file separate suits against the remaining 202 John Doe defendants -- all of whom are Comcast Internet subscribers -- and pay additional filing fees that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) estimated to total $30,000.
tags: RIAA | Judge | File-Swappers | John Doe |

Kodak Acquires 2 Digital Printing Firms; Sues Sony for Patent Infringement

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 9, 2004 - 6:30am.
Rochester, N.Y. -- Photo giant Eastman Kodak stepped up its move into the digital market yesterday when it acquired two digital printing companies owned by the German firm Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG for a combined $150 million. The two companies, NexPress Solutions and Heidelberg Digital, manufacture digital color and black-and-white printers. Separately, Kodak announced it has filed patent infringement claims against rival camera maker Sony, alleging the company is infringing on 10 of its patents covering digital photography technology. The suit seeks an injunction against further sale of the allegedly infringing products and unspecified monetary damages. "We have attempted to resolve the matter with Sony for almost three years, and the discussion between us have not led to a suitable licensing agreement," Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner told Reuters. Sony said it had not yet seen the suit and had no comment.
tags: Sony | Kodak | Printing | Digital | Patent | Infringement |

MCG Capital Acquires Media Trade Publisher Kagan World Media

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 9, 2004 - 6:28am.
Arlington, Va. -- MCG Capital Corporation announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Kagan World Media, a media and entertainment research firm based in Carmel, Calif. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. MCG purchased the assets from Primedia, which acquired the company from founder Paul Kagan in 2000. Kagan publishes newsletters and organizes conferences covering the cable, broadcast, home video, motion picture, newspaper and wireless industries. "We had a broad overlap in the industries that we cover, and we share a similar approach to financial research," said MCG Capital CEO Bryan Mitchell. "Combining forces with Kagan was a natural extension of our research arm and increases our research capabilities by an order of magnitude." The company will now be known as Kagan Research.
tags: MCG Capital | Kagan | World Media | Media Trade |