News written by Jari Ketola (April, 2003)

A U.S. district court upheld the earlier ruling and said that Verizon Communications must give up the identity of its Internet subscriber, who is accused of swapping music files on the Net. The company now has 14 days to disclose the identity, unless an appeals court puts the decision on hold again.

"Verizon cannot demonstrate that it has a substantial likelihood of prevailing...and has not shown that it will be irreparably harmed if a stay pending appeal is not granted," Judge John Bates wrote in his decision. According to him the DMCA law used by RIAA is not unconstitutional.

RIAA was obviously delighted about the ruling.

"Today's decision makes clear that these individuals cannot rely on their (Internet service providers) to shield them from accountability," Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, said. "If users of pirate peer-to-peer sites don't want to be identified, they should not break the law by illegally distributing music."

Verizon still sees that the decision will harm the rights and security of their customers, and will appeal again.

Source:
News.com

Australian police said on Thursday they had shut down an Internet music piracy site and arrested the three students who were running it. The site, known as MP3 WMA Land, offered free music files and video clips for download, many of which were hosted on university computers. The students running it were aged between 19 and 20. Two of them were Australians, and the third Malaysian. According to the police the site contained links to hundreds of music files.

"It [the shutdown] is a clear message to Internet pirates that they can no longer hide behind the mythology of the Internet. It's now revealed as nothing more than another form of theft," said Michael Speck, general manager of the Australian music industry's piracy investigations unit.

The defendants have been released on bail and will be appearing in court in mid-May. Australian penalties for copyright infringement include up to five years in jail or a $37,000 fine.

Source:
News.com

Japanese Sumitomo Electric Industries has started to mass produce two inch low-dislocation gallium nitride (GaN) substrates. GaN semiconductors are used to produce the violet (405nm) laser used for reading and recording Blu-Ray, and other "blue laser" formats. Low-dislocation GaN substrate is superior to sapphire substrates, which suffer from high dislocation (crystal defects) and hence have a low yield.

Sumitomo is currently capable of producing 200 substrates a month, but will step up production to 500 by October.

To learn more about Sumitomo's method read their article on GaN substrate.

Source:
the inquirer

Video-on demand service Movielink and Hollywood.com have reached an agreement on providing a co-branded version of Movielink's movies-on-demand service at Hollywood.com. There will be a selection of new releases and classic films in the price range of $2.95-$4.99.

The deal helps Movielink gain a stronger foothold on the streaming movie market. Walt Disney Co. recently announced that it will start testing its own service later this year. America Online, on the other hand, hs licensed MovieFlix.com's movie library for use by AOL Broadband users.

Movielink is a company founded by several movie industry giant. It is an effort to provide users of high-speed Internet a legal channel for viewing movies on the net.

Source:
News.com

A Chinese company called Hechuan Photoelectrics has developed, and patented their own version of the DVD-laser optical pickup used in every DVD-player to read data from disc. They will be investing more than $50 million in a factory to produce the parts.

This is great news for the Chinese DVD-market -- until now Chinese DVD-player manufacturers have had to rely on imported DVD-heads. Domestic manufacturing the key components of a DVD player will most definitely boost sales in China. And I'm sure we'll see the players marketed abroad as well.

Source:
the inquirer

According to figures released by Motion Picture Association of America to its member studios, the Hollywood movie industry earned a record total of $37.3 billion last year -- a staggering 18-percent increase from 2001. Much of the growth came from the 31 percent rise in DVD sales.

Source:
IMDb.com

Under quite peculiar circumstanses RIAA, along with Yahoo!, America Online, Microsoft and RealNetworks, has crafted a proposal for the online webcasting royalty fees.

What makes this proposal bizarre is the fact that RIAA agreed on the proposal with the Digital Media Association (DiMA), whose memberlist includes AOL, Yahoo!, and Microsoft -- none of which are in webcasting. The 25,000 or so webcasters are not included in the deal.

One might also wonder how AOL-TimeWarner can strike a deal with RIAA, since TimeWarners recording labels are all members of the RIAA. It's like right hand striking a deal with the left.

Read more:
News.com
The Register

A survey carried out by 321 Studios, the company behind DVD X Copy DVD backup system listed Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Collectors Box Set as the top limited edition DVD.

Of the 1,009 respondents 45 percent chose the FOTR box set as the #1 limited edition set. The Matrix Platinum Limited Edition was the favourite out-of-print DVD for 30 percent, and Spider Man Limited Edition DVD Collector's Set for 13 percent of respondents.

"Limited edition DVDs are valuable investments and the treasured property of collectors. Consumers have a right to protect their irreplaceable DVDs. DVDs can easily get lost, stolen, scratched, broken or damaged by heat," said Robert Moore, president of 321 Studios. "In the event that these priceless pieces of their DVD libraries are harmed, backup copies can protect their investments."

Source:
Yahoo! News