(a) For previously reviewed or investigated companies not listed above, that have separate rates, the cash deposit rate will continue to be the company-specific rate published for the most recent period.

Macrovision’s attorney explained how and why it charged patent infringement in its suit vs. 321 Studios, in addition to claims of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violations against the company. On May 11, the U.S. Dist. Court, N.Y.C., granted Macrovision a preliminary injunction against the sale of 321’s DVD X Copy family of DVD backup software, which 321 said it would appeal (CED May 19 p8). Unlike other suits against by content owners, which mainly have charged violation of the DMCA’s provisions against circumventing copy protection, Macrovision’s suit used 2 complementary approaches of attack by asserting DMCA violations and claims for infringing Macrovision’s patented copy protection, which is used in most DVD players sold worldwide. “The vast majority of Hollywood DVDs are protected by software flags that trigger the patented anti-copy methods within DVD players,” said Macrovision attorney Robert Becker. “When those flags are copied by DVD X Copy, the patented methods are triggered and performed without license from Macrovision. A patent infringement results. When the software flags are removed, the anti-copy mechanism is circumvented, resulting in a violation of the DMCA.” The preliminary injunction granted to Macrovision follows similar ones granted by the N.Y.C. court March 3 in Paramount Pictures v. 321 Studios and Feb. 20 by the U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco. Each court found the DVD X Copy line violates the DMCA by circumventing DVD’s Content Scrambling System (CSS). Since the Feb. 20 Cal. ruling, 321 has been able to sell only copying software that lacks a “CSS ripper.”

(a) preliminary de minimis AD rate (Diler: 0.36%, ICDAS: 0.02%, and Fuyao: 0.13%)

Warner’s The Last Samurai was the #1-rented DVD for the 2nd consecutive week, according to Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data Thurs. for the week ended May 16. Rentrak said the title earned an additional $6.59 million on DVD, for $14.08 million to date. In its first full week available, Buena Vista’s Scary Movie 3, meanwhile, was the #2-rented DVD, earning $4.91 million for $4.99 million total.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the antidumping (AD) duty changed circumstances review of structural steel beams from Japan.

Eidos’s Hitman: Contracts for PS2 was once again the #1- rented videogame in the U.S., according to Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data Thurs. for the week ended May 16. Rentrak said the title earned an additional $263,667 in its 4th week, for $1.13 million to date. The Xbox version of the game, meanwhile, was #7 (down 3 in its 4th week, $145,982 in the week, $636,211 to date). The only other publisher with more than one Top 10 SKU was Take-Two Interactive’s Rockstar Games, whose Red Dead Revolver for PS2 was #2 (up one in its 2nd week, $238,810 and $415,785). The Xbox version was again #8 ($137,889 and $249,006). Electronic Arts (EA), which had dominated the top 10 for months, had to settle for only one top 10 title for the 2nd consecutive week: Need for Speed Underground for PS2 at #5 again in its 26th week ($149,196 and $7.8 million). The only other Xbox title was Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow at #9 (down 3 in its 8th week, $131,282 and $1.62 million). Rounding out the top 10 were all PS2 titles: Midway’s NBA Ballers at #3 (down one in its 6th week, $218,046 and $1.52 million), Sony Computer Entertainment’s Syphon Filter: Omega Strain at #4 (up 22 in its 2nd week, $168,512 and $229,033), Vivendi Universal Games’s Van Helsing at #6 (up 10, 2nd week, $147,080 and $238,399) and Capcom’s Onimusha 3: Demon Siege for PS2 at #10 again ($116,934 and $292,003).

NTIA Acting Dir. Michael Gallagher still must approve and sign a report on improvements to the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) preparation process before the report is passed on to Congress, said Darlene Drazenovich of the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management. Drazenovich’s comments were made during a meeting of WRC Informal Working Group 1 (IWG-1) Tues. NTIA asked for comments on the process in Oct. (CD Oct 24 p6) and has since submitted a draft report exceeding 40 pages to the International Radiocommunications Advisory Committee (IRAC), the FCC and the State Dept., Drazenovich said. Some recommendations concerned methods to improve Radio Conference Subcommittee (RCS) liaison with the WRC Advisory Committee (WAC) and the IWGs, and what the RCS liaisons can or should do to provide information on the status of the RCS. Drazenovich said the report recommended including private sector observers in the core WRC delegation. Meanwhile, the group declined to approve new preliminary views for inclusion in the June 8 WAC meeting. The view that was presented, on agenda item 1.2, dealt with the “feasibility of sharing between meteorological satellites [Metsats] operating in the space-to-Earth direction and the fixed service [FS] and fixed satellite service [FSS] in the space-to-earth direction in the band 18.0-18.4 GHz.” While the preliminary proposal would “meet the Metsat data transmission bandwidth requirements in the already established 18.1-18.3 GHz contiguous FSS allocation,” there was doubt whether Metsats would meet FSS criteria for communications with Earth stations. Another proposal was expanding the Metsat allocation to 18-18.3 GHz. IWG-1 Chmn. Jennifer Warren suggested document edits be circulated electronically for inclusion at the June 8th WAC meeting.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) frequently issues notices on antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued and neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period.

Software developer 321 Studios will appeal another federal court’s preliminary injunction against the sale of its DVD X Copy family of DVD backup software. In a suit vs. 321 by Macrovision, U.S. Dist. Judge Richard Owen, N.Y.C., granted the plaintiff’s request for injunction May 11. Owen also denied the defendant’s motion to transfer the case to Cal., where another federal court had enjoined sales of 321’s products. Each court found the DVD X Copy line violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) provisions against circumvention of copy control technologies, in this case, DVD’s Content Scrambling System (CSS). Since the Feb. 20 Cal. ruling, 321 has been able to sell only copying software that lacks a “CSS ripper.” Macrovision sued 321 for copyright infringement on DMCA grounds, and for infringement of Macrovision’s copy protection patents. “We are disappointed that Judge Owen didn’t address any of our legal issues, and therefore the main issues in this case,” a 321 spokeswoman told us Tues.: “We plan to appeal.” In his order, the judge said he'd ruled March 3 in a similar case, Paramount Pictures v. 321 Studios, that 321’s software violated the DMCA, and therefore he “need not reach all the issues raised here.” Separately, 321’s DVD X Copy Platinum and DVD X Copy Xpress ranked 2nd and 5th respectively among top-selling PC software titles in March, according to research firm NPD. It’s not known if the titles sold were the new “ripper-free” versions or original ones still in the retail pipeline.

The ITA also states that the CV cash deposit rates for all non-reviewed companies are unchanged by the results of this review.