-
Downloads
April 8, 2010
April 8, 2010
April 8, 2010
April 8, 2010
Featured Bloggers
|
MESA Thanks its Members... |
Luxury Watch Case On Supreme Court Docket May Have ‘First Sale’ Implications
In its upcoming term this fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that could bring changes to the entertainment industry’s longstanding “first sale” precedents — even though neither party has much of a stake in the entertainment sector.
Petitioning the high court over a suit from Swiss watchmaker Omega, wholesale membership warehouse Costco says it should be able to resell Omega-brand watches that it purchased from a third party, since the watches’ first sale was to an authorized distributor. The problem, according to Omega, is that the first sale was abroad.
The watchmaker claims that Costco’s unauthorized importation and resale of the watches in California stores — for hundreds of dollars less than they ordinarily would sell for Stateside — effectively infringes on a U.S.-copyrighted logo that’s engraved on each timepiece.
Businesses from Blockbuster to Netflix are predicated on the “first sale” doctrine. But it’s unlikely that the facts of the Omega case would arise in the DVD arena. Consumer DVD pricing may vary around the world, but region-coding and differing video standards between countries effectively prevent U.S. consumers from being able to play discs that were first sold in foreign markets.
Universally-playable media such as audio CDs are potentially another story. However, ruling in favor of Omega in its 2008 appeal, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held (.pdf) that resellers of foreign-made goods could claim protection under the Copyright Act’s first-sale provision only if an authorized first sale took place domestically. The court’s rule built upon a 1991 decision that disallowed first-sale protections to an importer of U.S.-copyrighted, foreign-manufactured sound recordings (BMG Music v. Perez).
Still, Costco’s appeal to the Supreme Court recently garnered friend-of-the-court support from the American Library Association, which along with other library groups contends that the Ninth Circuit’s rule “threatens the ability of libraries to continue to lend materials in their collections.” More on these implications at The Wall Street Journal — which also meditates on how U.S. copyright law has increasingly seen successful exploitation by consumer-goods brands and other corporations, even as it falls short for distributors of creative works in the digital age.
A retailer trade association whose members include Costco as well as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Apple has also submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court. More on retailers’ angle at Lexology.
Today's M&E Connections
• First Impressions Of The New Apple TV, iTunes ‘Ping’ Social NetworkSome first takes on Apple’s latest would-be game-changers, Apple TV and iTunes’ new “social network for music,” Ping:
• Apple TV’s 99-cent streams of TV shows represent an incremental digital revenue opportunity for ABC, Fox, and any other network willing to sign up with the company — but the streaming rental model is not (yet?) a disruptive threat to an industry that still relies on advertiser dollars and retransmission fees, according to the Wrap.
• Wired pooh-poohs Apple TV from a tech-savvy consumer’s perspective, offering five specific shortcomings: a dearth of content at launch; no app-style interface; no HD broadcast tuner; no 1080p support; and generally, not a compelling enough offer to wean video file-sharers off BitTorrent. But Wired sees promise in Ping to spark more impulse-buys of songs and lift the digital music business.
• The Daily Beast cites analyst enthusiasm for Apple TV’s $99 price point, and the positioning of the product not as a cable box replacement, but as a peripheral that succeeds the DVD player. As for the intended audience, the site echoes CrunchGear’s observation that the device “isn’t for pirates, it’s for parents.”
• All Things Digital explores Ping’s lack of Facebook integration, despite early reports of such features. Apple CEO Steve Jobs tells the site’s Kara Swisher that Facebook ultimately wanted “onerous terms that we could not agree to.” iTunes may in any event have 150 million active users, but it remains to be seen just how many of them will seek out friends on Ping — and just how easy it is for them to do so.
Alliance Entertainment — which ships CDs, DVDs and videogames to some 14,500 retail locations in the U.S. — has been acquired by two private equity firms, Platinum Equity and the Gores Group (.pdf).
Alliance CEO Alan Tuchman — who has been with the company for 25 years and will continue leading the business — said in a statement that the transaction “will provide us with additional operational and financial resources to continue our long-standing, proven commitment to customer service.”
We are now well positioned to grow the business going forward.”
Both private equity firms acknowledged the evolving nature of the media distribution business, but view Alliance as well-positioned for growth.
The company is also the largest supplier of fulfillment services for online CD and DVD stores, according to Billboard.
No sooner had Apple announced “rentals” of Fox TV show episodes for 99 cents via Apple TV than Amazon.com matched the 99-cent price point for episode downloads of Fox’s “Glee” at its own video-on-demand storefront. As paidContent points out, the discount could have implications beyond simply staying competitive in the digital space, for Fox releases the DVD version of “Glee”’s first season Sept. 14.
At least as of right now, customers can either pre-order the standard DVD for $35.49, or purchase the digital version of the entire season for $21.78 — and watch the episodes immediately. Amazon pitches the digital version on its DVD pre-order page.
A woman who rented five DVDs from a Redbox kiosk in 2008 proposes to lead a class action lawsuit against the company, claiming that Redbox’s maximum $25 late fees are improper. In their latest filing in a Michigan county court, Redbox’s counsel notes that the woman never paid the late fees on two of the DVDs, and hence has no standing to bring her suit.
Redbox also is seeking to protect some information the plaintiff requested as part of the suit’s discovery process. But so far, the company has been unsuccessful in its efforts to get the case dismissed.
Local Michigan legal journal The Madison/St. Clair Record has details, including efforts by third parties Blockbuster and NCR to quash discovery requests from the class action lawsuit’s organizers.
3D TV Dominates IFA Electronics Show (Guardian)
Now Playing at Blockbuster: Catch-22 (Advertising Age)
Game Maker LucasArts Lays Off One Third of Staff (Los Angeles Times)
Tesco Supermarket Turns Film Producer (Time)
Disney Keeps Channels on Time Warner Cable Amid Talks (Bloomberg)
Apple’s self-described “hockey puck” set-top will offer $.99 streaming rentals of new TV show episodes from ABC and Fox, along with $4.99 streaming rentals of first-run movies.
The revamped Apple TV device costs $99, and will begin shipping to purchasers in four weeks, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a keynote today. Other features include integration with would-be rival streaming services from Netflix and YouTube.
With the device, Apple seeks to bring its brand of interface simplicity to video on demand, as cable providers seek to refine their own VOD services.
Jobs’s Apple TV announcement followed the launch of a new version of iTunes that added “Ping,” a social network for music discovery, as well as a line of ever-more-sleek iPods. More analysis in tomorrow’s newsletter; in the meantime, Engadget has coverage from the Apple event in San Francisco.
The Hollywood Reporter faults a shorter summer movie season for a projected 1% decline in box-office revenues between May 7 and Labor Day, with total industry grosses expected to top $4.24 billion.
The sore spot, however, is a near-6% decline in admissions, to a projected 538 million — for which the Reporter implicates exhibitors’ 4.5% increase in average movie ticket prices.
Under a different analysis, 3D may wind up saving studios’ summer revenues, even if high prices kept some moviegoers away. Research site Hollywood.com expects box office grosses from the first weekend of May through Labor Day weekend to rise 2.4% to $4.35 billion in the U.S. and Canada, thanks in no small part to 3D versions of films such as Toy Story 3 (via Bloomberg). Summer admissions are still another story: Hollywood.com expects attendance to slip 2.6% year-over-year to 552 million.
No matter what the final percentages are, the flagging attendance is bound to exacerbate tensions between studios and exhibitors, which have been skirmishing over theatrical and home entertainment release windows for months.
As Apple rolls out its new Apple TV, Amazon is reportedly eager to bow a video rental service of its own in time for the holiday season.
The site has pitched a paid-subscription streaming service to major movie and TV studios, according to the Wall Street Journal. While Apple’s rental focus is on first-run movies and just-aired TV episodes, Amazon would apparently emphasize catalog content with its service.
There is no word on how much Amazon would charge for subscriptions. The site’s video-on-demand store currently offers downloads of TV show episodes for $1.99 a piece, and movie rentals for as low as $2.99.
Vivendi faulted slackening demand for physical product, as well as fewer major releases, for a 5.4% revenue decline at its Universal Music Group during the first half of 2010. Total revenue for the label group during the period topped $2.4 billion. The parent company looks for a stronger second half from its music division, with releases from the likes of Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, Maroon 5, and Duffy. More on the financials at Billboard.
EA’s “Madden NFL 11” looks to be the top-selling game in North America for the month of August, with the publisher estimating sales to be up by approximately 5% year-over-year across all platforms for the month.
Digital revenues for the game are up by more than 200% year-over-year, EA said, on the strength of a virtual-trading-card mode called Madden Ultimate Team.
“Madden NFL 11″ gamers have averaged more than two million online connected game sessions each day, according to the publisher. Nearly 20% of all online play has been logged on a new 3-on-3 multiplayer feature, Online Team Play.
EA also is taking the franchise into the social gaming arena with “Madden NFL Superstars,” which launched on Facebook Aug. 31.
Industry Events
Content Protection
Stay Connected
