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Dow Jones Acquires Financial News Site MarketWatch for $528 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 24, 2005 - 7:26am.
New York -- Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, announced on Monday that it has acquired financial news site MarketWatch for $528 million. The deal ends a bidding war for MarketWatch that included The New York Times Company, the Gannett Company and Viacom. Dow Jones, whose WSJ.com is the largest paid subscription site on the Internet, said MarketWatch will no longer carry the CBS branding, and will retain its best-known columnists and reporters, in addition to its online radio network. "Together, The Wall Street Journal network of sites and MarketWatch attract close to 9 million unduplicated unique visitors per month," said Richard F. Zannino, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Dow Jones. "With a nearly tripling of the reach of our online network, we will take even greater advantage of continued strong growth in both online usage and advertising."
tags: Acquisition | Acquires | Dow Jones | Financial News Site | MarketWatch |

Tech Firms, Public Interest Groups File Amicus Brief in MGM v. Grokster

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 24, 2005 - 7:17am.
Washington -- A coalition of technology firms and public interest groups on Monday filed a "friend of the court" brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear an appeal next month in the recording industry's copyright infringement lawsuit against peer-to-peer file-sharing firms, MGM v. Grokster. Groups including The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents webcasters; the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), which lobbies on behalf of 380 tech firms; and public interest groups NetCoalition and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) urged the Supreme Court to reaffirm its 1984 "Sony Betamax" decision, which found that VCRs were not tools of piracy because of their "substantial non-infringing uses." The brief further suggests the Supreme Court remand the Grokster case back to the lower court, to determine if peer-to-peer firms' conduct construed "bad behavior" that would merit charges of contributory copyright infringement. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier found, in a landmark decision, that file-sharing software providers are not liable for copyright infringement committed by individual file-swappers. "By affirming its 1984 Sony standard, the Court can remind lower courts of the legal distinctions that permit innovators to flourish and those whose conduct violates the law to be held liable," said DiMA executive director Jon Potter. "But the Ninth Circuit was confused about its ability to take an independent look at bad behavior by defendants engaged in knowingly, actively encouraging copyright infringement by the misuse of their technology," added ITAA president Harris Miller.
tags: Law | MGM | Grokster | Tech Firms | Public Interest Groups | Amicus Brief |

Report: U.S. Surfers Can't Differentiate Search Results From Sponsored Ads

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 24, 2005 - 7:15am.
New York -- Only 18% -- or about one in six -- of adult U.S. Internet users can tell the difference between actual search results and paid ads on search engines, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Such paid, or "sponsored," search results, which appear on Google, Yahoo, MSN and other engines, are typically delineated from actual search results by being placed above or to the right of results, often in a different-colored box. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said they would stop using search engines if they thought they weren't being clear about offering some results for pay. "We're still in the infancy of the internet," study author Deborah Fallows told the Associated Press. "People are still kind of so pleased that they can go there, ask for something and get an answer that it's kind of not on their radar screen to look in a very scrutinizing way to see what's in the background there." Overall, the Pew survey found that 38 million Americans use a search engine each day, more than half of the U.S. Internet population. The average user spends a total of 43 minutes a month conducting some 34 searches.
tags: Reports | U.S. Surfers | Search Results | Sponsored Ads |

"Grand Theft Auto" Game Developer Take-Two Gets Exclusive Deal With MLB

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 24, 2005 - 7:13am.
New York -- The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), the union that represents the rights of professional ballplayers, announced on Monday that it has signed an agreement with "Grand Theft Auto" video game publisher Take-Two Interactive, giving it the exclusive rights among third-party publishers to develop game titles featuring official players' names, uniforms and stadiums. Financial details of the deal, which takes effect in 2006, were not disclosed. Unlike rival Electronic Arts' recent signing of an exclusive deal with the NFL, Take-Two's agreement with the baseball union will allow companies that create video game consoles, like Sony, to continue to develop official baseball games for their own consoles -- effectively safeguarding Sony's "MVP Baseball" game franchise. New York-based Take-Two said developers Visual Concepts and Kush will now be devoted to the creation of baseball games for all viable platforms. The company has co-developed its "ESPN MLB 2K" franchise for several years with Sega's Visual Concepts studio, but will lose the rights to include ESPN branding as a result of an exclusive 15-year deal reached between ESPN and Take-Two rival Electronic Arts.
tags: MLB | Take-Two | Grand Theft Auto Game Developer | Exclusive Deal |

Microsoft Won't Appeal Media Player Bundling Ruling by European Union

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 24, 2005 - 7:11am.
Brussels -- Microsoft announced on Monday that it has decided not to appeal an interim European Union ruling that it immediately implement antitrust sanctions imposed in March. In a statement, Microsoft said it had decided to "forego its right to appeal" the European Court of First Instance's ruling on Dec. 22, 2004, meaning that the company must now offer a version of its Windows operating systems without its Media Player music and video software. What's more, Microsoft now must share a number of specifications with its rivals. "Rather than seeking to suspend the Commission's remedies, Microsoft's focus now is on working constructively with the Commission on their full and prompt implementation," the company said. Microsoft also announced that the first versions of Windows without Media Player would hit European retailers within the next few weeks.
tags: Law | Microsoft | Media Player Bundling Ruling | European Union |

Interscope Head Jimmy Iovine to Consult for Sirius Satellite Radio

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 24, 2005 - 7:09am.
New York -- Sirius Satellite Radio, a provider of satellite-delivered digital radio programming, announced on Monday that it has formed an alliance with Interscope Geffen A&M Records, and its chairman, Jimmy Iovine. Sirius and Interscope recently partnered on Shade 45, a hip-hop channel on Sirius that will be co-executive produced by Interscope artist Eminem. In addition to serving as executive producer for Shade 45, Interscope's Iovine will also act as creative advisor and consultant to Sirius on new programming opportunities, and offer promotional opportunities with Interscope artists.
tags: Sirius Satellite Radio | Interscope Head | Jimmy Iovine |

Indie Music Distributor The Orchard Licenses 8 Mobile Music Services

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 24, 2005 - 7:07am.
New York -- The Orchard, a large distributor of independent music owned by Dimensional Associates, announced on Monday that it has licensed portions of its 300,000-song catalog to eight mobile services, which will in turn offer them as master ringtones to their customers. The deal will license The Orchard's content to Dwango Wireless, Zingy, 9 Squared, HIFI Ringtones, IAM Mobile, Securycast, Arvato Mobile and Hudson Soft. In addition to tracks from artists ranging from Beck and Coldplay to Ravi Shankar, the agreement includes comedy tracks from Jerry Seinfeld and George Carlin. Additionally, New York-based Dimensional Associates announced the formation of Dimensional Mobile Entertainment (DME), a new unit that will focus on mobile media through development and acquisitions. DME plans later this year to launch an eMusic Mobile service, offering a single subscription to its eMusic catalog for both PC and mobile usage.
tags: Mobile Music | The Orchard | Indie Music Distributor |