LA QUINTA, Cal. -- Blu-ray and HD DVD have the green light to commercialize products now that there’s an interim license on an Advanced Access Content System (AACS) -- the backbone of content protection for both formats. But it could take 6-12 months to complete the final AACS license agreement, MPAA Exec. Vp-CTO Brad Hunt told the IRMA Recording Media Forum here Sat.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following countervailing (CV) duty administrative reviews:

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has published its antidumping (AD) duty order on certain orange juice from Brazil. In addition, the International Trade Commission has published a final negative critical circumstances determination regarding subject merchandise from Brazil.

The PS2 version of Black from Electronic Arts (EA) became the #1 videogame in the U.S. during its first week available, according to Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended March 5. The Xbox version was #2. EA dominated the top, with 5 additional SKUs: Fight Night Round 3 for PS2 at #3 (down 2 in its 2nd week), Need for Speed Most Wanted for PS2 at #4 (down 2 in its 16th week), the Xbox version of Fight Night at #5 (down 2), the Xbox 360 version of Fight Night at #8 (down one) and the Xbox version of Need at #9 (down 3). The only other publishers with games in the top 10 were Eidos, LucasArts Entertainment and THQ with the PS2 games 25 To Life at #6 (down one in its 7th week), Star Wars Battlefront II at #7 (down 3 in its 18th week) and WWE Smackdown! Vs. Raw 2006 at #10 (down one in its 16th week), respectively.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated new shipper reviews for the antidumping (AD) duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from China with respect to the following three companies, as both the exporter and producer, and review period:

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the preliminarily results of its countervailing (CV) duty administrative reviews of low enriched uranium from Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (UK) for the period of January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004.

The February 2006 issue of American Shipper contains an article on how complicated trade has become. According to the article, suggestions for simplifying trade include (partial list): Congress and the courts could give common sense and simplification deference when creating or altering trade laws; Congressional leaders could, as a precursor to a Trade Simplification Act, appoint a multi-disciplinary group to closely study and offer meaningful recommendations for simplification; the long, overdue International Trade Data System (ITDS) could aid the simplification cause; making it easier to comply with the law could free up vital U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) resources for the homeland security missions; etc. (American Shipper, dated 02/06, www.americanshipper.com.)

NTIA “market research” into potential contractors to handle technical coordination of the domain name and addressing system could signal the eventual shift of some Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions from ICANN, a longtime ICANN participant said Thurs. NTIA asked Tues. for indications of interest in tackling functions ICANN performs. With unhappiness growing in some quarters over ICANN’s work, there’s a “very real possibility” those functions could be handed to one or more organizations, said Bret Fausett, a lawyer in Duane Morris’s L.A. office. But ICANN called the move a formality of U.S. procurement law.

ORLANDO -- Marta’s new partnership alliance with AVB will strengthen the groups’ buying power in negotiations with CE vendors without comprising their separate autonomies, said retailers we canvassed at the Marta convention here Thurs. As evidence of the enhanced clout that will accrue, Marta members cited the groups’ combined sales of $4.2 billion and a recent agreement AVB inked with Panasonic carrying guarantees for a supply of plasma and LCD TVs that puts ABV/Marta on par with national chains in terms of revenue volumes.

Atari dashed whatever hopes investors had that French majority stockholder Infogrames Entertainment would provide the struggling U.S. publisher with any of the funding it desperately needs to survive. That’s because Infogrames faces its own significant fiscal woes, Atari said in a 10-Q SEC filing late Wed.