Sony Computer Entertainment registered a new PS3 model at the FCC in early September, a filing at the Commission showed. The filing on model “CECHG01” provides few clues on which features the new PS3 would include or omit. An SCE America spokeswoman wouldn’t comment.
New Games: The PS2 version of Madden NFL 08 from Electronic Arts, in its sixth week available, was again the top-rented videogame in the U.S., according to Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Sunday. EA had four other titles in the top 10: Medal of Honor: Airborne for Xbox 360 at No. 2 (up one in its third week), the 360 version of Madden at No. 4 again, Skate for 360 at No. 6 (up 16 in its second week) and NCAA Football 08 for PS2 at No. 8 (down one in its eight week)… Spacetime Studios hired computer game artist David Levy, ex-Ubisoft, as its visual director to “head the visual direction” for a new massively multiplayer online computer game it’s developing for NCsoft, the company said but didn’t provide the game’s name. Levy was a senior concept artist and illustrator for Ubisoft’s game Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Spacetime has increased its staff 25 percent over the past three months and “plans a similar increase through the end of the year,” it said… New games from Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) include the action game Heavenly Sword and NBA 08 - each now shipping for PS3 at $59.99 -- and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror for PS2 at $39.99 from its Bend Studios. Syphon Filter takes full advantage of the console’s dual analog controller and features a remixed soundtrack for Dolby Surround, SCEA said. NBA 08 features 1080p resolution at 60 frames a second, it said.
The International Trade Administration has issued a notice implementing its determination under Section 129 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act for stainless steel sheet and strip in coils from Italy, effective August 31, 2007.
Another state’s bars on youth access to “harmful” online material have been voided as overbroad and infringing adults’ right to lascivious speech. The U.S. District Court in Dayton, Ohio, previously ruled that the Ohio legislature’s definition of “harmful to juveniles” in a child-predator bill would have criminalized nudity neither sexually explicit nor extremely violent, and not glorifying crude bodily functions. The court also said the bill exceeded its scope of protecting kids online. After the legislature passed a revised bill, allowing an exemption for “broadcast” communications that indiscriminately reach some minors, the state persuaded the 6th Circuit to return the suit to the district court. The plaintiffs, including the Association of American Publishers and the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, sued again. The new opinion by Judge Walter Rice deviates little from his preliminary injunction ruling. He said the state had made the definition of “harmful to juveniles” constitutionally narrow, but the broadcast exemption wouldn’t protect “one- to-one” exchanges between adults in, say, chat rooms. Supreme Court precedent dictates that “every user of the Internet has reason to know that some participants in chat rooms are minors. An adult would have no way of ensuring that her communications in a chat room would be between and among other adults alone,” Rice said. The state has a “compelling government interest” needed to restrict speech aimed at juveniles, but the law criminalizes behavior that falls short of attempting to “induce children into sexual activity,” its stated purpose, he said. Other state laws have survived the “strict scrutiny” test by requiring “double intent” -- display of harmful material followed by attempted seduction, Rice said. But he declined to rule the Ohio law a violation of the federal Commerce Clause, saying several courts found that some state regulation of the Internet is justified. And there’s no evidence of congressional intent to subject the Internet to federal authority only, Rice said.
The European Commission will decide by Oct. 26 whether to subject Google’s proposed takeover of DoubleClick to a full-blown antitrust inquiry, a Competition directorate spokeswoman said Tuesday. The $3.1 billion deal has drawn fire from European consumer groups, who say the combined company will monopolize online advertising. And Microsoft, which had also tried to buy DoubleClick, is said to be lobbying hard to stop the sale. Google formally told the commission about the takeover Friday.
Storage providers must check customers’ files for pirate content after alerted by a content owner, the Higher District Court in Cologne, Germany, ruled Friday. The Collecting Right Society got a preliminary injunction against Swiss-German content host RapidShare from a lower court. RapidShare said it had no control over the content and didn’t know what kind of content was stored. Customers use external sites, or “link resources,” to publish titles and links to stored content. The appeals court changed the injunction by strictly limiting RapidShare’s duty to check on external links that would lead to pirated content and to take down content on notification if links can be found on rapidshared.com/link.io. “We do not have to check for these links throughout the whole Internet,” said a spokesperson for RapidShare. The company welcomed the decision. “Hosters need clear-cut rules about what they have to check, otherwise there will be no more companies who will invest in infrastructure and innovative services for a broad audience,” it said.
The International Trade Administration has issued two notices announcing that it has suspended the antidumping duty investigations on lemon juice from Mexico and Argentina, effective September 10, 2007.
The Transportation Security Administration has issued a notice announcing the availability of the working specification for Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) biometric readers and the TWIC contactless smart card application.
The International Trade Administration has issued its final results of the antidumping duty administrative review of certain frozen warmwater shrimp from China for the period of July 16, 2004 through January 31, 2006.
The International Trade Administration frequently issues notices on antidumping and countervailing 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.