News archive (4 / 2000)

U.S. government and 19 states filed a proposal to an antitrust judge that suggest that Microsoft should be splitted into two separate companies; one responsible of Windows platform and one responsible of all other software and hardware products.

This proposal does not mean that Microsoft is going to be splitted -- MS has told that it wants to go up to Supreme Court in this case and that means that final ruling in this case wont come until 2001.

Today, U.S. court made a decision in the case of RIAA vs MP3.com. Judge ruled that MP3.com has violated RIAA's copyrights in their My.MP3.com service that allows people to send in the CDs that they already own and MP3.com then converts them into MP3s that user can access with his/her own account.

For me, this ruling sounds like judge really didn't understand what's going on -- basically the ruling means that people are not allowed to do whatever they want this the stuff that they legally own. So, what's next - maybe MPAA will sue VCR manufacturers again (they lost in '80s)...

Because of ruling, MP3.com's stock has sunk so far over 40%.

Musicmaker.com announced its first quarter results for 2000. They were up 290%, to $3M, compared to last quarter of 1999 ($797,000). Musicmaker.com is a company that allows people to create their own customized CDs and to download music in MP3 and WMA format from their website.

According to German magazine, Visions, Sony plans to raise the price for CDs in Europe step by step over the next 15 months. CD prices will go up to 40 DM from current 27 DM.

Is Sony planning its own funerals by doing such an irrational move in the world that is already taken over by MP3 revolution? Only time will tell...

After many of the news sources falsely reported (including us...) in last week, Offspring is NOT going to sue Napster for copyright violations together with Metallica and Dr.Dre. Since this rumour got so much publicity, the Offspring came out and spoke about the Napster.

"I don't know what Metallica's motives or reasons for what they're doing are, but as far as we're concerned, I support the exchange of MP3 files online", Dexter Holland, the Offspring frontman, says.

(article from RollingStone)

London programmer Ian Clarke and rapidly growing bunch of volunteers are working to develop a way to change Internet into "Freenet", a network that works a little bit like Gnutella's main idea -- to make Internet more flexible by creating "mini networks" between people and to secure all connections, file transfers, etc and to keep total anonymity for users. Basically Freenet changes regular users machine from "dumb client" into small host.

This may be the key that finally puts record industry, BSA, MPAA and other copyright authorities against the wall. By letting people to keep total anonymity, to allow content distribution over secure connections without any centralized ports, it basically makes impossible for copyright owners and ISPs to block illegal distribution of software, music, etc..

But in other hand -- it provides safe way to communicate without fear of loss of privacy, etc..

Steven Spielberg has finally stepped on the DVD bandwagon with the announcement of the Jaws DVD. A 25th anniversary collector's edition is expected to be released July 11. It will include deleted scenes, outtakes, a trivia game and a new digital widescreen transfer with either Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 surround sound.
Other hit movies from Spielberg, such as "E.T." and "Jurassic Park", are expected to be announced later. There's no word on the Indiana Jones DVDs yet.

Dr.Dre took today a final step so far in his case against Napster. He sued the company for copyright violations claiming that software allows people to distribute his music for free. So, now this week-old parody has been taken into court rooms, as Dr.Dre threatened in last week. Let's see what happens next..

Earjam and MP3.com announced today that they've entered into promotional deal. With this deal, Earjam users can access to MP3.com's huge musical archive through Earjam player and website.

According to L.A. Times, Napster and American band, Limp Bizkit, are about to ink a deal that would sponsor band's summer tour for estimated $2 million. Seems like a slap in a face for those artists and RIAA suing Napster..

(article from dmusic)

University of Southern California announced today that they wont ban MP3 sharing tool Napster even that Metallica has sued them for letting students to distribute illegal material through their networks. They've made clear that since Napster itself isn't a way to just spread illegal material, more likely just a tool that makes it possible among similiar legal actions, they wont ban it.

After Dr.Dre requested Napster to remove all his tracks from Napster's databases or he would file law suits against the company as Metallica has already done, Napster answered to Dr.Dre in Wednesday. Napster said that its ok to remove all his tracks if he can identify the users who spread his tracks :-) Well, since Napster's user database is pretty impressive, hundreds of thousands of users, its basically impossible to do this kind of a task.

So, now Dr.Dre will file law suit against Napster after his Friday deadline. And the lawyer that represents Dr.Dre and also Metallica, says that bunch of other artists, including The Offspring, are joining to suit pretty soon..

Another university has given in under legal pressure from Metallica. Indiana university has blocked usage of Napster in its networks..

EMusic and Hewlett-Packard have inked a deal that will provide EMusic's MP3s available for HP's new 540 series PDAs. All new buyers of HP's new Pocket PC PDAs will get a CD that would contain ten full-length MP3s from EMusic's archives.

Dr.Dre, American rap artist, has asked Napster to remove all his tracks from Napster database before Friday or else he and his record company will sue Napster for copyright violations..

C'mon - all the artists - join the bandwagon and sue the Napster. Sure they can afford to these totaling 20 billion bucks or so, sure... I'm so tired of this garbage - it's like suing an US Postal Service for allowing people to spread illegal content through its service. Napster is just a tool.

We've been experiencing some major down-times today and earlier in this month too often. This is because of our server, its increased traffic and its capacity. AfterDawn.com and MP3Lizard.com run on so-called shared server, which means that we share our server with appx. 30 other domains.

This situation will change within three weeks, if everything goes smoothly. We'll inform more about this later, but for now - sorry for any trouble this may have caused for you, dear users.

-Petteri Pyyny, webmaster

Univesity of Yale has banned usage of Napster in its networks after legal pressure from metal band Metallica. After this decision Metallica dropped charges against Yale..

New era of multimedia capable PDAs will start in Wednesday, when Microsoft releases its latest version of Windows CE operating system, dubbed as Pocket PC. At the same time, at least four manufacturers will release their Pocket PC compatible devices full of multimedia features.

New devices will include at least HP's new line of PDAs, Casio's E-115 and Compaq's mega-class PDA (203MHz CPU). These devices will be able to show movies, play MP3s, etc.. As much as PalmOS is ahead of CE in user friendliness, CE devices are way ahead of Palm in multimedia features.

MP3.com announced today that it has bought majority stake of mp3radio.com from its venture partner Cox Interactive Media. mp3radio.com is a service that provides localized music news and free music downloads for over 100 American radio stations. Financial terms of the deal were not published.

MP3.com may face the final truth already in this month in its case against RIAA. RIAA filed lawsuits against website MP3.com few months ago claiming that its My.MP3.com service violates its members' copyrights.

Basically My.MP3.com service gives users an ability to send MP3.com CD that they own and MP3.com will put that CD in MP3 format in user's personal file area in My.MP3.com and user can then access the music through that service and sell the original CD. This is pretty much what anyone can do with their CDs -- people can copy the CD into tapes, blank CDs, etc and then sell the originals if they want. Anyway, RIAA claims that this is illegal.

In today's hearing, the main point was RIAA's request to judge the case as soon as possible without taking the whole court process to the end. The judge decided to give his decision for this request on 28th April.

RIAA is looking for $150,000 per album, totaling almost $10 billion...

AOL was found guilty in German court in charges that claimed AOL to violate copyrights of music copyright holders by allowing people to swap digital copies of music in its network. This ruling sets very clear limits for ISPs responsibility inside E.U. if the ruling stays the same in supreme courts.

Virgin, British mobile phone operator, offers first in the world the service that allows people to download and listen music from the Internet with their cell phones. Phones are manufactured by Samsung and they're priced at 300 pounds ($470). Service will be available in next summer.

World's most popular heavy metal band, Metallica, sued Napster and three American universities today, claiming them for massive copyright violations against band's material.

For Napster, these court cases are beginning to be every-day-thing, but its first time when universities get sued. It's very propable that this is a impact of German courts decision yesterday that ruled AOL to pay huge fines for allowing people to spread illegal musioc through its service.

"Napster has built a business based on large-scale piracy," the band's lawsuit reads. "Facilitating that are hypocritical universities and colleges who could easily block this insidious and ongoing thievery scheme."

GetMusic, online music content company that's backed up by BMG and UMG, and Liquid Audio today announced an agreement to integrate Liquid Audio's catalog of secure music downloads and streaming audio previews to the GetMusic Network.

(read full story from Yahoo)

The first public version of the Linux device drivers for Sigma Designs' Hollywood Plus and Creative Labs' DXR3 DVD playback cards is now available.
The initial version supports:
·MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video playback
·Audio playback (MPEG audio decoding not supported)
·PAL TV-out
Although there's still alot left to be done, it's still alot better than nothing.
Visit the project homepage for download and installation instructions.

We modified our MP3 search engine, MP3Lizard.com, and now it has totally new layout that should work also with legacy browsers and with Netscape 6.

Hopefully you like it -- AfterDawn.com is also going through some MAJOR changes during next month.

Old (I mean OLD) British band The Who will release bunch of their tracks on Internet through Musicmaker's website. Songs, including "My Generation" and "Substitute", can be bought for custom CDs or downloaded in MP3 or WMA format.

Pearl Jam will release a new single in streaming format tomorrow from their forthcoming album Binaural. Song is called Nothing as it seems and it can be listened through Apple's and Sony's websites.

Pearl Jam

Sony Music Entertainment announced on Friday that it will start distributing its music content through Internet downloads by end of this month. This is a clear follow-up for BMG's similiar announcement earlier this week.

MP3.com and pretty new swapping service, WebSwap, announced yesterday their co-operational agreement that makes WebSwap MP3.com's official swapping site and gives WebSwap ability to use links to MP3.com's pages. Contract also includes promotional terms, etc..

Linux drivers for Sigma Designs' Netstream 2000 DVD decoder board have gone into beta test phase.
Netstream 2000 is a product designed for interactive MPEG video, Video on Demand, and IP and ATM Multicast applications.

BMG Entertainment Group and Liquid Audio
Inc. announced their strategic
relationship contract. BMG will use
Liquid Audio's technology to offer
contact for sale through online retailers.

SpinRecords.com announced today its new
retail product that is meant for
musicians. It contains step-by-step
how-to video, free MP3 software, web
music site guide and a booklet with
detailed instructions how to create and
download MP3 files. This package is
priced very reasonably, only $19.95.

Sega will announce a new addition to its Dreamcast console that would add MP3 playback capabilities to the console. This new chip will include 64MB memory that can have appx. 2hrs of mid-quality MP3s in it. Player wil be priced around $100, so it's not such a bad investment even though it could use a bit more memory...

One of the oldest MP3 sites, Dimesion Music (a.k.a. dMusic) changed their layout totally today. New layout looks pretty neat and is pretty fast to load, too.

Besides just changing the outlook, they've added more stuff to their site also. Including extra news topics from Jark's Newsseek, new DJ driven music content, MP3 ahrdware reviews and more...

Give them a visit at dMusic.com

Toshiba have just released details for their 4 new DVD players to be shipped this year.

Toshiba's new entry level machine, the SD100E, will be available in silver as from April.
The SD200E (with CD-R compatibility and a built-in Dolby digital decoder) will be released in June, and will be available in silver as well.
Finally, the SD500E (a champagne gold machine with both DVD Video and Audio compatibility along with Dolby Digital and DTS decoders) and the SD900E (Toshiba's top of the range DVD player, with the same specifications as above, but in conformity with the DVD Forum's AA standard, which results in lower harmonic distortion) will be released in September.

Source: www.7thzone.com

Eisa.com has announced a revolutionary combination of Internet technology and home electronic entertainment called NEO(TM).
The NEO iDVD(TM) player, which uses the Eisa.com's Internet network, is the first family focused, hybrid DVD and TV-Web appliance offered in the world. Retaliling at amazinly low price of $100 this device is sure to attract alot of attention - especially in families that do not have access to the Internet yet. Eisa.com provides unlimited Internet service for a $23.95 per month.
The Neo iDVD comes with a remote control and a wireless keyboard with Internet shortcut buttons.
Related links:
Eisa.com
NEO iDVD Player

EMusic posted its stats today and they show that since their launch, EMusic.com has sold over one million MP3s through its website.

EMusic has over 100,000 MP3 songs for pay-per-download. EMusic also owns major music websites like RollingStone.com.

First court hearing are done in Napster vs. RIAA case in this week. Most important factors in the case seem to be 20 years old VCR ruling that was against MPAA's will (it favored the technology instead of movie rights) and Napster's claim that its software helps people to find music of new artists (which is already shot down ...).

Go and check the full coverage from MP3NewsWire.