COPYCENSE

"The House of Representatives passed copyright legislation on Tuesday that would dole out criminal penalties to those who make unauthorized recordings of films in movie theaters.

"The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 (HR357) also would permit technologies that allow users to skip objectionable content in movies viewed at home.

"The bill passed by voice vote and now heads to the president, who is expected to sign it into law. An identical bill (S167) already passed in the Senate earlier this year."

Katie Dean. House OKs Family Copyright Bill. Wired News. April 19, 2005.

See also:
Declan McCullagh. Prison Terms on Tap for ‘Prerelease’ Pirates. News.com. April 19, 2005.

Ted Bridis. Congress OKs Bill to Strip Movie Smut. BusinessWeek Online. April 19, 2005.

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"The Associated Press will begin charging newspapers and broadcasters to post its stories, photos and other content online, a pricing shift that reflects the growing power of the Internet to lure audiences and advertisers from more established media.

"Most of the 15,000 news outlets that buy AP’s news, sports, business and entertainment coverage have been allowed to ‘re-purpose’ the same material online at no extra cost since 1995. At that time, graphical Web browsers were just beginning to transform the Internet from an esoteric computer network to a mass medium.

"The new pricing policy, effective Jan. 1, begins to shift some of the funding of AP to the growing online market, as technological advances and digital devices are making it ever easier for people to get their news whenever and however they want it."

Associated Press. Associated Press to Impose Online Licensing Fees. SiliconValley.com. April 18, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Having been rebuffed by an ICANN panel, search giant Google brought its battle against Froogles.com to U.S. court.

"Google filed a trademark infringement suit (.pdf) against Richard Wolfe, operator of the relatively tiny Froogles.com, on Monday. The search provider complained that consumers could confuse Wolfe’s bargain-shopping site with Google’s Froogle and even the name Google itself — even though Wolfe had been using the name Froogles since December 2000. Wolfe applied for trademark protection for the name in September 2003."

Susan Kuchinskas. Google Versus Froogles Redux. InternetNews.com. April 18, 2005.

See also:
Loren Baker. Google Files Suit Against Froogles for Trademark Infringment. Search Engine Journal. April 18, 2005.

Mark Harrington. Google Fights for Its Oogle. Sun-Sentinel.com. April 14, 2005.

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Google Inc., v. Richard Wolfe d/b/a Froogles.com. (.pdf) April 8, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs is given undeniable credit for jump-starting what is now a fast-growing digital music market, but some music executives complain that his company, with 70 percent of the digital download market, is setting the ground rules for their own business.

"While iTunes is designed to propel the sales of iPods–more than $1 billion worth in the last quarter alone–the labels complain that Apple’s policies are insensitive to their goals and limit their ability to grow their digital business even faster.

John Borland. Music moguls trumped by Steve Jobs?. News.com. April 15, 2005.

See also:
Steve Jobs’ resume.
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"Desktop publishing specialist Adobe Systems is buying multimedia applications maker Macromedia in a $3.4 billion deal geared toward building a software powerhouse.

"The all-stock deal, announced Monday, is designed to create a better-stocked source of tools for building and distributing multimedia content across a range of operating systems and devices, the companies said.

"They also stressed that the merger will enable them to expand more rapidly into the market for audio and video applications for handhelds and other gadgets."

Matt Hines. Adobe to Buy Macromedia for $3.4 Billion. ZDNet. April 18, 2005.

See also:
Clint Boulton. Adobe to Buy Macromedia for $3.4B. InternetNews.com. April 18, 2005.

Russell Shaw. What Adobe Buying Macromedia *Could* Mean for VoIP. ZDNet. April 18, 2005.

Paul Festa. Developers React to Adobe’s Macromedia Buy. News.com. April 18, 2005.

Paul Festa  and Martin LaMonica. Macromedia, Adobe Make Peace for Bigger Fight. News.com. April 18, 2005.

Adobe Systems Inc. Adobe — Macromedia Acquisition Announcement Frequently Asked Questions. (.pdf) April 18, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"TiVo is in talks with Internet search giants Google and Yahoo over a possible deal aimed at bridging television and the Web, CNET News.com has learned.

"A partnership between TiVo and a major Internet search engine would offer expansion opportunities for both. TiVo has long talked about becoming the ‘Google of TV,’ eventually enabling its 3 million subscribers to search for and watch any broadcast or broadband media. Though TiVo opened the door for video downloads straight from the Web, it does not yet offer such a feature.

"Meanwhile, Google and Yahoo are investing heavily in video services."

Stefanie Olsen  and Richard Shim. Search Giants Court TiVo. News.com. April 18, 2005.

See also:
Stefanie Olsen. Digital Ads Tune In. News.com. April 29, 2004.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Amid pressure from the Universal Music Group, America Online has struck a deal to pay for the use of Universal’s music video libraries for its online service, people involved in the deal said.

"The licensing agreement, expected to be announced today, sets a potentially lucrative precedent for the music industry in the evolution of online and video-on-demand business. The major record companies have been trying to avoid a repeat of what they think was a costly error in the early 1980’s, when they agreed to provide videos free to a fledgling MTV."

Jeff Leeds. AOL Said to Reach Deal to Use Universal Videos. The New York Times. April 19, 2005.

See also:
Chris Marlowe. Music Vids Get Free Rein at AOL Music. Reuters. April 19, 2005.

(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.