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Firms Partner to Standardize Digital Rights Management

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 4, 2004 - 3:16am.
Sunnyvale, Calif. -- A group of seven entertainment, technology and consumer electronics firms have announced the formation of a consortium that will promote interoperability between digital rights management technologies used in the consumer media market. The Coral Consortium -- whose members include HP, Intertrust, Philips, Matsushita, Samsung, Sony and Fox -- will work to create a common technology framework for content, device and service providers, regardless of which digital rights management technologies they use. "The classic approach to solving the interoperability problem is to either use a single proprietary platform for media distribution, or to standardize a common content protection and management technology," said Coral Consortium president Jack Lacy. "Consumers typically just want to buy, play, and use content in an intuitive manner and do not want to dwell on differences between esoteric technology features. Coral aims to provide them with such functionality and ease of use."
tags: Deal | Firms | Standardize Digital Rights Management |

Forgent Sues 31 Computing Firms for Infringement of JPEG-Related Patent

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2004 - 3:27am.
Austin, Texas -- A scheduling software developer has sued 31 big-name computing firms including IBM, Apple, HP, Xerox and Kodak for patent infringement, claiming its patented JPEG image technology -- a ubiquitous image file format used on the Web -- is being used without permission. Texas-based Forgent said it has sought licensing deals with all 31 companies, but is now suing for royalties on its technology. The company said that its patent has generated $90 million in licensing fees over the last two years, including a $16 million payment from Sony. "We believe we will prevail in this litigation as the '672 Patent is valid, enforceable and infringed," said Forgent CEO Richard Snyder. "It's unfortunate that despite the many opportunities these companies have had to license the patent, they have all declined to participate, leaving us no alternative but to litigate."
tags: Deal | Forgent | Firms | JPEG-Related Patent |

Mobile Entertainment Firm Mobileway Raises $23 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 7, 2004 - 6:53am.
San Mateo, Calif. -- In a deal that will allow it to expand into new territories, such as China, Mobileway, a provider of mobile messaging, marketing and entertainment services, said on Wednesday that it has landed $23 million in its fourth round of funding. New investor Institutional Venture Partners and previous investors 3i, CDP, Intel, Investcorp, Mayfield, Nexit Ventures and Visa participated in the round, which the company also plans to use to dramatically increase its market penetration in the U.S. and launch a range of new applications. Since its inception four years ago, Mobileway now has raised a total of more than $77 million. The company currently supplies more than 450 brands with mobile marketing and entertainment services, and carries wireless messaging traffic on behalf of more than mobile carrier networks.
tags: Mobile | Entertainment | Firms | Mobileway |

Jukebox Software Firm MusicMatch Launches $0.99 Digital Song Store

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 29, 2003 - 9:59am.
San Diego -- MusicMatch, a provider of music jukebox software and a subscription music service, announced on Monday the launch of a new digital music store, which is similar to and will compete with Apple's iTunes Store and BuyMusic.com. Initially, the store will offer U.S. residents 200,000 songs from all five major labels and 30 independents for $0.99 each or $9.99 for full albums; the company plans to offer over 500,000 by year's end. CNET News.com reported that sources say PC maker Dell, which last week announced that it would also open a digital music store, will promote and distribute the MusicMatch offering. Songs will be delivered at 160 kbps in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format, and may be played on up to three PCs and transferred to any Windows-compatible portable player. Buyers may also burn both songs and playlists created using MusicMatch software to CD. San Diego-based MusicMatch's new digital song store will be fully integrated into the 8.1 version of its popular jukebox software, also enabling users to instantly purchase songs they hear on the company's streaming radio service.
tags: Software | Jukebox | Digital Song | Firms | Musicmatch |

Micropayments Firm Peppercoin Raises $4.25 Million in First Round

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 29, 2003 - 9:55am.
Waltham, Mass. -- Looking to establish a new, lower cost form of "micropayments" for the purchase of digital content, Massachusetts-based Peppercoin has raised $4.25 million in its first round of venture capital, led by POD Holding. The funding follows a seed investment for Peppercoin of about $1.7 million from a group of individual investors that was announced earlier this year. Peppercoin's technology is based on research conducted at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. The company said it can cut the transaction fee on a $0.99 sale from the typical $0.27 to "well below $0.10." Peppercoin is initially targeting music companies, online game providers, newspaper and magazine publishers, and other digital content providers.
tags: Peppercoin | Raise | Micropayments | Firms |

Recommendation Software Firm AgentArts Gets Investment from Nokia

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 22, 2003 - 11:19am.
San Francisco -- AgentArts, a provider of entertainment content recommendation and personalization software, announced on Tuesday an undisclosed investment from Innovent, an investment unit of cell phone maker Nokia. San Francisco-based AgentArts' software tracks a user's media preferences and then makes recommendations on other media a user may potentially be interested in. "As more and more digital entertainment becomes available to consumers via new services and devices, consumers will increasingly value automated intelligence enabling them to find, manage and access the most valued content," said AgentArts CEO Andrew Coates.
tags: Software | Nokia | Investment | Firms |