Monthly Archives: June 2009

Morning read: Microsoft @ E3, BBC/Google, more

June 2, 2009
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Microsoft’s kick-off presser at E3 in LA tops the news this moring. The big takeaway was the rollout of Project Natal for the Xbox 360, which uses a 3D video camera to let people control on-screen game action by moving their bodies, rather than with a Wii-like wand or thumb-busting hand-held controller (see reports here, here and here, and full press release here). In a show of marketing force, Microsoft brought out Steven Spielberg to demonstrate the new controller, followed by a joint appearance by Paul, Ringo, Yoko and George Harrison’s widow to demonstrate the Beatles Rock Band game.

paul-ringo

For a non-gamer like Media Wonk, though, the more interesting news was the amped-up Xbox LIVE. Online network will drop downloading in favor of instant streaming of movies and bump the quality up to 1080p video and 5.1 channel audio. It also integrates Netflix’s streaming service, Web radio serve Last.fm and live and on-demand TV from BSkyB (see here and here). Read more »

DOJ urges court to pass on Cablevision case

June 1, 2009
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supreme-courtWell I feel like an idiot (again). No sooner had The Media Wonk posted his idle speculation that prospective-Justice Sonia Sotomayor might provide a crucial vote for cert. in the Cablevision case than the Department of Justice submitted its long-awaited brief in the case strongly urging the Supreme Court to take a pass. While not the final word on that matter — that still belongs to the cour t– it now seems highly unlikely the court will take the case seeing as it specifically asked for DOJ’s views.

The DOJ’s recommendation is largely being reported as a victory for technology interests and a defeat for the studios (see here, here and here). And as an immediate practical and legal matter, that’s true, in that a denial of cert. by the court would let stand the Second Circuit’s ruling that Cablevision’s remote-storage DVR service does not directly infringe the networks’ copyrights and pave the way for Cablevision (and likely other cable operators) to roll out RS-DVR.

But if I were technology promoter I wouldn’t get too comfortable just yet with the Obama Administration’s views on the proper balance between technological innovation and the protection of intellectual property. At least not based on the Cablevision brief, the lead author of which was solicitor general Elena Kagan. Read more »

Morning read: Google takes on Amazon, Sony still pining for synergy, more

June 1, 2009
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Topping the news this morning, the New York Times reports that Google was telling publishers at the annual BookExpo over the weekend that it is committed to launching a new service by the end of the year that would allow publishers to sell ebooks directly to consumers at prices set by the publishers. That would put Google in direct competition with Amazon, setting up a potential clash of titans that will likely bring renewed attention to the ebook market.

google-amazonAccording to the Times, publishers are thrilled with the plan because it would let them fix retail prices while Amazon insists on loss-leadering ebooks to promote sales of Kindles. The new program would be separate from Google’s proposed settlement with publishers in the book-scanning case, which awaits court approval and is under investigation by the Justice Department. Meanwhile, Ars Technica reports this morning that the EU may also being looking into the deal.

Elsewhere this morning, Daily Variety has an inadvertantly funny story up about Sony’s latest effort to spin the combination of Blu-ray and PS3 as a good idea: bloated gameware that can only fit on Blu-ray discs. “What Blu-ray has allowed us to do is build these epic experiences,” SCE’s Scott Rohde tells the Hollywood trade. “When you have more room on the disc to store more assets, you can do a lot more with your titles.”

And when you have a Blu-ray drive in your game console you have to charge more for the console, making it uncompetitive with the Wii and Xbox 360.

Sony will introduce a bunch of first-party Blu-ray games at E3 this week. Variety‘s Marc Graser manages to scrounge up one third-party developer, Naughty Dog, to offer a tepid endorsement of the Blu-ray as a publishing platform. Wait’ll they see the replication bill.

In other Sony news, some leaked video and photos have made the long-rumored PSP Go the buzz heading into E3 (per the BBC). The big news: UMD is out as the storage medium, and a 16 gig flash drive is in.

Across the Pond, the U.K. film industry wants to government to introduce “speed humps,” on the Internet to slow down illegal file-sharing, the Guardian reports (alas, Media Wonk’s speed-humping days are mostly behind him…). The studios “are proposing that Internet service providers (ISPs), some of whom have previously sent letters to persistent illegal file-sharers warning that their actions could land them in court, should put in place technical measures that would shut off or warn about sites used by pirates.”