Gretchen Hyman

CinemaNOW, one of the few IP-based Video-on-Demand (VoD) subscription services still standing, made deep inroads into the Asian broadband market this week through a licensing agreement with Media Design Institute (MDI), a Japanese and American-based multi-media company. CinemaNOW, a three-year-old company that is majority-owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, Microsoft, and Blockbuster, has managed to stay […]

Yahoo! concluded the second round of a five-part copyright infringement lawsuit this week in connection with its LAUNCHcast Web radio service. After settling with Universal Music Group last year, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Web portal settled with Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment (SME) over similar allegations that its free Web radio service violated copyright law. The […]

After adding and dropping key executives like flies over the past few week including its President and CEO Henry Nicholas, Irvine, Calif.-based Broadcom Corp. filed a complaint against Texas-based Microtune, Inc. alleging infringement on patents related to tuners, power amplifiers, and Bluetooth products. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the […]

In the wake of nine consecutive losing quarters, which led semiconductor giant Broadcom to cut 16 percent of its workforce in November 2002, the company Thursday initiated a wide-ranging executive shakeup which includes the ouster of President and CEO Dr. Henry T. Nicholas III. COO and board member Lanny Ross has taken the reins as […]

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) may be on the verge of holding individuals accountable for their online file-swapping behavior, but according to employee Internet management company Websense Inc. they are facing an uphill battle. A report released Thursday by San Diego-based Websense suggests that file-swapping […]

Bill Gates calls it the “Digital Decade“. Steve Jobs envisions the “Digital Hub“. But one thing is for sure – we are connecting to the Internet in some pretty new and original ways. Research released this week by Dallas-based market research and consulting firm Parks Associates indicates that increasing numbers of U.S. households are using […]

EMC Corp. and Oracle Corp. entered the second phase of a services agreement this week that was formed in late 2002. The two storage heavyweights have been working together on joint projects since 1995. The two companies announced Tuesday that EMC’s Global Services unit has teamed with Oracle Consulting to bring the ‘Oracle on EMC […]

The Supreme Court’s ruling this week to uphold the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) reignited the debate over whether Congress’ 1998 decision was unconstitutional in granting extended copyright protection and whether that extension impacts free speech guarantees in the First Amendment. Petitioners in the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft were individuals and businesses […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), which ensures protracted copyright protection for literature, movies, songs, and cartoon characters. The ruling was a major setback for artists, online publishers, and anyone else with a vested interested in free access to public domain works and “products of inventive […]

French telecommunications giant Alcatel SA lifted the spirits of industry analysts and investors Tuesday with reports that its fourth quarter for 2002 will not be as dour as previously predicted. This at a time when all eyes are looking to the telco industry for signs of economic recovery. The good news sparked a 21 percent […]

San Jose, Calif.-based Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. announced plans this week to expand its reseller agreement with Sun Microsystems. A maker of Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure, Brocade has been a long-standing Sun supplier of fabric switches, devices that route a path or circuit for sending data to its next destination. By expanding the terms […]

If Bill Gates can anoint this the “Digital Decade” and Steve Jobs can declare 2003 will be the year of home/mobile user products, then Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard is on the right track so far. This week, HP unveiled several new products aimed at just such a market, beginning with the release of two new […]