News written by James Delahunty (December, 2007)

Vivid Entertainment Group has filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles Federal court against an adult-oriented YouTube-knockoff site called PornoTube. The adult entertainment giant targeted the video site for copyright infringement, representing the first move by a Porn Industry company against a YouTube-like site. While the Porn industry has certainly been somewhat more successful at marketing content for online-consumption compared to the movie industry for example, it has always had to compete with free clips.

Unlike the movie industry, Internet users surfing for free adult videos are more likely to be happy with 5 - 10 minute clips than a user surfing for TV shows or movie downloads. While the porn industry has always had to compete with free clips, it doesn't accept that it should have to compete with freely available clips from is very own catalog of premium content.

"We've decided to take a stand and say 'no more,' " Vivid co-Chairman Steven Hirsch said. "We will go after all the free sites." To a degree, Vivid's complaint about PornoTube echoes Viacom's complaint about YouTube. Both companies seek to discover just how much responsibility services like YouTube have over the content uploaded to the service by third party users. Neither company wants to act as police officers that specialize in online copyright infringement, an activity that would require a lot of time and money just to ensure that your content isn't freely available to view.

According to a statement issued by Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, the proposed purchase of XM by Sirius has received support from three U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers. Connie Mack of Florida (Rep), Joe Baca of California (Dem) and Bob Filner of California (Dem) have come out to support the merger according to the statement. The deal is currently being evaluated by the Justice Department which is trying to predict what such a merger would mean for competition.

Since XM and Sirius are the two only Satellite Radio providers in the United States, licensed 10 years ago by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), the proposed merger sparked alarm and criticism from all sides because it would kill competition between the two. However, XM and Sirius claim that competition has changed dramatically in a decade, and Satellite Radio itself has to compete with other technologies such as HD Radio and even MP3 players.

General Motors Corp has also thrown support behind the merger. The company installs XM Radio equipment into some of the its cars. It has urged the FCC to avoid putting conditions on the deal.

In a recent survey conducted by trade paper MCV which questioned 100 independent videogames shops, the Xbox 360 consoles emerged as the favorite to win the console war. Microsoft's Xbox 360 was launched in 2005, a year ahead of Nintendo's Wii console and Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. On a global scale, the Xbox 360 has been seen competing with the Wii for sales (taking second place in monthly sales frequently), until recently when Sony dropped prices of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) and witnessed an impressive sales boost.

Despite the Wii console topping monthly sales figures over and over again, sometimes by a large margin, only 16% of the voters in this survey believed it could win the war. About 49% believed that the Xbox 360 had the best chances of winning, followed by a 35% vote of confidence in the PS3. Despite the confidence in the Wii being so low, 57% also said that the low stock of the Wii was the biggest disappointment for the industry in 2007.

About 22% of the respondents were unhappy with the launch performance of the PlayStation 3. As for Halo 3, 31% of the games retailers thought that the its launch was the high point of the entire year, just ahead of 30% who thought the continued success of the Wii was the best thing of 2007 for the industry. When voters were asked who's job in the industry they would like to have, they voted unsurprisingly strongly in favor of Bill Gates.

A senior executive of Sony Corp. has claimed that the company's flagship PlayStation 3 (PS3) games console/home entertainment hub will pass 11 million global unit sales by the end of this fiscal year. Speaking to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, Sony Computer Entertainment's chief executive Kazuo Hirai said he is confident the company will pass the 11 million mark this fiscal year despite increasingly tough competition from Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii consoles.

The holiday season is as vital to the games industry as it is to any, and Sony came prepared to tackle Nintendo and Microsoft this quarter after a disappointing year since the PS3's initial launch. A recent 10% price cut in Japan along with the unveiling of a slimmed-down model turned up the heat on the competition in the territory, and a $100 price cut did wonders for unit sales in North America.

"The PlayStation 3 is starting afresh as a console to play games with. Although pricing strategy is important, now we would like to put our strength in the number of software games," Hirai said. His comments reflect concerns from gamers over the past year about the PS3's game line-up when compared to that of the Xbox 360. The console's touted extras, like the Blu-ray player, were not good enough to take the attention away from games, but informed consumers perceived this as Sony's mistake.

Addonics Technologies has announced its new Zebra Blu-ray / HD DVD player (eSATA) that that allows your PC to play Blu-ray and HD DVD movies from the same tray. The drive also supports Burning DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW media. Users can turn their laptop or desktop computer into a high definition movie player and enjoy high definition video quality of 1080p format at 1920x1080 resolution and the dynamic 7.1-channel audio output that comes with the Blu-ray or HD DVD format.

The he Zebra Blu-ray / HD DVD player & DVD±R/RW burner comes with a choice of high speed eSATA connection or a combination eSATA and USB 2.0 interface. It is bundled with the Cyberlink High-Def Suite for use with Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista. The product also supports Linux (Kernel 2.6 and above) with free playback software downloadable from various Linux websites.

Sharp has introduced a new second generation Widescreen 32-inch (LC-32GP3U) Full HD 1080p AQUOS LCD TV, created especially with gamers interests in mind, according to the company. The new GP3U model handles the highest frame rates of even the most challenging video games and is equipped with special features that enhance the gaming experience.

"Through innovation and design, Sharp has again created a one-of-a-kind product that enhances the game-playing experience," said Bob Scaglione, senior vice president and group manager, Product and Marketing Group, Sharp Electronics Corporation.

He added: "The GP3U series offers consumers the technological prowess of Sharp's gaming-specific features, as well as a new design that opens up placement options for gamers." The GP3U model is equipped with a full array of connection options, including two sets of component inputs and three HDMI version 1.3 (x.v.Color), inputs, all compatible with 1080p signals from Blu-ray and advanced gaming devices. The LC-32GP3U also supports 1920 x 1080 24 frames per second high-definition video for displaying cinematic content in its native format when played from a compatible video source.

The Royal Malaysian Police has teamed up with anti-piracy organizations to raid three illegal optical disc manufacturing plants, recover six replication lines, several hundred infringing stampers and thousands of infringing discs in the last few months. It followed information from a source which led to the first illegal facility in Kluang, Johor province on 20th November. The raid netted three replication lines and more than 6,000 infringing discs.

A review of evidence recovered from the first facility led to the location of a second illegal factory in the same town. The police subsequently raided this optical disc plant and located a further two replication machines with several hundred infringing discs.

The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA) then worked with Industry investigators to identify a third related illegal replication plant. When the authorities approached this optical disc plant they discovered the owners attempting to remove a sixth replication line in a heavy goods vehicle.

The investigation is on-going.

Source:
Press Release

A Dutch court has handed out fines up to €15,000 to several Rotterdam shopkeepers for selling counterfeit Bollywood material. Three of the defendants were also given community service sentences of up to 200 hours and a three month conditional prison sentence. The action stemmed from a March 2005 raid which led to the seizure of more than 140,000 CDs and DVDs containing Indian music and movies from 13 shops across Rotterdam.

The raids had involved around 100 officers from the Dutch fiscal police, supported by investigators from record industry bodies IFPI and BPI as well as Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, who assisted the authorities in identifying illegal product. Most of the illegal product originated in Pakistan, a major source of illegal copies of popular Indian films and music.

"Despite the high profile of online piracy, the sale of counterfeit Bollywood CDs and DVDs is still a major problem in the Netherlands. We are pleased with this verdict that sends a strong message to shopkeepers tempted to make a quick profit by selling illegal product," said Tim Kuik, Managing Director of BREIN.

Amazon.com and soft-drink company Pepsi Inc. are teaming up for a DRM-free MP3 promotion. At CES last week, a panel-discussion of numerous heads of the music industry favored the ad-supported, subscription based model of music services as the industry moves away from Digital Rights Management (DRM). Not represented in the discussion despite being a major music retailer, Amazon has taken some interest in the direction.

The retailer never supported DRM restrictions being placed on music, and now claims to offer over 3.25 million DRM-free downloads. Beginning on Super Bowl Sunday, Amazon and Pepsi will run a promotion in which Pepsi products will be marked with points that can be exchanged for MP3s on Amazon's music service.

The amount of points needed to exchange for a single music file is unknown, but Pepsi has stated that over four billion bottles will be circulated during the promotion with Amazon. "Why can't Amazon have a download store where songs are 25 cents with ads?," Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Music Group asked last week at CES.