First comprehensive tests into life expectancy of recordable DVDs is set to begin this summer under auspices of National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), DVD 2003 conference in Gaithersburg, Md., was told Wed.
AT&T shareholders voted against establishing term limits for outside directors and capping CEO compensation, according to preliminary proxy voting results announced at AT&T’s annual meeting Wed. in Savannah. Results showed only 7.7% of 525.4 million shareholders voted for directors’ term limits and 7.6% voted for a cap on CEO compensation. AT&T Chmn. David Dorman told attendees that the company expected to end the year with net debt under $10 billion, compared with $12 billion at the end of the first quarter. He said AT&T, among other things, planned this year to implement “a single global IP network” and would offer bundled local-long distance services to consumers in as many as 22 states by the end of the year. He said that despite “a challenging environment,” the company gained share in several areas of the business market, including local, IP and managed services. “From an operational standpoint, the challenges of the last year and the downturn of the industry overall have made AT&T a better company,” Dorman said. “We have become more focused and more efficient, improving processes and setting a very specific, simplified vision for our future.”
As it pledged late last month (CED May 22 p3), Interactive Digital Software Assn. (IDSA) joined VSDA, Hollywood Entertainment and others to challenge constitutionality of recently passed Wash. violent videogame law. Law, signed last month by Wash. Gov. Gary Locke (D), makes it illegal to rent or sell videogames containing violence directed at law enforcement officers to kids under 17. It’s to go into effect July 27 unless U.S. Dist. Court, Seattle, stops it.
Lockheed Martin Space & Strategic Missiles and Northrop Grumman Space Technology have completed all 49 preliminary design reviews (PDRs) for the advanced extremely high frequency (AEHF) project, Lockheed said. The completion means all technical performance requirements have been met, the company said. The AEHF program will benefit military communications between warfighters, providing more secure, survivable communications.
More than 100,000 counterfeited DVDs were seized in raid by U.K.’s Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and Customs Service and local police, FACT announced Mon. Raid followed Customs’ interception of 5,000 counterfeit copies of Disney’s Holes at Heathrow Airport May 1. Following investigation that identified major U.K. importers of pirate DVD product from Far East, in particular Malaysia, authorities raided private house May 2. FACT said potential sales value of professionally pressed pirate DVDs seized was more than ?1,425,000 ($2,337,000 at ?1 = $1.64), making it largest pirate DVD haul to date in U.K. Also seized were numerous other optical discs, import documents, computer equipment. Thousands of pieces of artwork were recovered, including sleeves and imported “topside labels” for DVDs that appeared to be for application to counterfeit DVD-R discs, FACT said. Unidentified suspect was immigrant from Singapore who had been in U.K. for less than 6 weeks but already had managed to bank thousands of pounds in cash, group said. Information obtained from house indicated that suspect had aspirations to take over 50% of London pirate market, FACT said. In search, officers also found small DVD-R lab in upstairs room with 10 DVD burners housed in 3 PCs. More than 2,000 DVD-Rs with unknown content were seized along with disc labels with latest film titles ready to be adhered to DVD-Rs, FACT said. Motion Picture Assn.’s program in Malaysia has received preliminary information from raid and is investigating in Malaysia and Singapore to locate manufacturing source. Separately, FACT said Mon. it had noticed increase in number of pressed counterfeit DVDs with 2 or more titles in recent weeks. Phenomenon has been reported in past, but those discs generally were poor quality DVD-R versions produced on PC burners in U.K. Compilation discs are concern as they have at least double impact on industry, priced around ?8-?10 in U.K. markets. Source material used for DVDs in some cases was camcorder copy of theatrical titles, but also post-video release titles ripped digitally and of better playback quality, FACT said. X Men II and Matrix Reloaded compilation were seized by FACT May 25 in open-air market, it said.
Cal. Supreme Court -- reviewing reversal of an injunction against posting DeCSS DVD-decryption software -- wrestled Thurs. with challenges of applying trade-secrets law to Internet publication. At oral argument, justices hammered defendant Andrew Bunner’s attorney David Greene on his contention preliminary injunction was an improper prior restraint on expression. But they grilled appellant DVD Copy Control Assn. (DVD CCA) lawyer Robert Sugarman about logic of court order to protect an erstwhile secret already spread widely over Internet.
The Ill. Citizens Utility Board (CUB) asked a federal court to halt implementation of a state law enacted earlier this month that would allow sharply higher rates for SBC’s UNE if it took effect as scheduled June 9. The CUB complaint in U.S. Dist. Court, Chicago, contended the new law (SB-885) “illegally circumvents the regulatory process and violates” the federal Telecom Act. The CUB said the bill, by mandating changes in certain inputs in the costing formulas for UNEs, would allow SBC to push its loop rate to $23 per line from today’s $12. The CUB said the Ill. Commerce Commission was in the midst of reconsidering SBC’s UNE rates when the law passed. The CUB petition joins a federal lawsuit filed May 16 by SBC’s local competitors that was due for a preliminary hearing today (May 29).
NTT DoCoMo plans to conduct a trial of a 4th-generation wireless system at its R&D center in Yokosuka in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture. DoCoMo, which has been researching 4G technology since 1998, said it had demonstrated maximum data rates of 100 Mbps for a downlink and 20 Mbps for an uplink as part of indoor experiments started last Oct. The field trial will evaluate variable spreading factor orthogonal frequency and code division multiplexing technology -- VSF-OFCDM -- and variable spreading factor-CDMA (VSF-CDMA). The company said VSF-OFCDM allowed downlink connections at very high speeds both indoors and outdoors. It said VSF-CDMA allowed high- speed, high-efficiency packet transmissions for the downlink. DoCoMo described the trial as the “next step toward the development of practical 4G technologies.” It said it also was part of work on the establishment of a global 4G standard, now under discussion at the ITU. The Kanto Telecom Bureau granted DoCoMo a preliminary license Wed. to conduct the test, which is designed to evaluate: (1) Effective packet transmission methods. (2) Adaptive modulation and channel coding scheme. (3) Adaptive retransmission control. (4) Adaptive beam forming based on predicted direction of arrival.
Media companies need to include the possibility of deliberate sabotage in their planning for media reliability, a task force recommended Wed. to the FCC’s Media Security & Reliability Council (MSRC). Homeland Security Dept. Secy. Tom Ridge called public information communication “one of the most critical pieces of national response to crisis” and an element of homeland security that could help the nation in its development toward “a new and better level of readiness.”
A state court in La. issued an injunction to block a PSC decision to remove newspaper publishers from the list of business entities exempt from the state’s 2001 no-call telemarketing law. The La. Press Assn. and the Denham Springs Publishing Co. filed suit in La. Dist. Court, Baton Rouge, seeking reversal of the PSC’s April decision. Plaintiffs contend the PSC violated their right to due process because it failed to provide notice and opportunity to be heard on the change in the no-call exemption affecting newspaper publishers. Dist. Court Judge Curtis Calloway agreed to the request for an injunction and set a May 30 date for a preliminary hearing. The PSC , which administers the no-call list, originally had included newspapers on the exemption list because of their relationship to political activity but later reconsidered that decision and reversed it.