From the press release: "
Yahoo!
Inc. announced today the successful completion of
its tender offer for
all of the outstanding shares of common stock of
Launch
Media, Inc. at a price of $0.92 per share in cash.
The offer expired at midnight New York City time on August
8, 2001...
"Yahoo! intends to acquire the remaining shares
of Launch Media by means of a merger of a wholly
owned subsidiary of Yahoo! with and into Launch Media. In
this merger, each remaining share of Launch Media's stock
will be converted into the right to receive $0.92 in cash
and Launch Media will become a wholly owned subsidiary of
Yahoo! Inc."
Read the entire release in NewMediaMusic.com
here.
From the Wall Street Journal: "The recording
industry, sensing victory and looking to avoid trial in its
suit against
Napster, asked
a federal judge to rule that the song-swap company is liable
for damages for copyright infringement.
"In a request for summary judgment filed late
Tuesday with U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, the recording
industry insisted Napster had direct knowledge of the copyright
infringement aided by its network of users. The documents
were made available Wednesday.
"'Napster's Web site advertised the piratical nature
of the system by bragging that, "With Napster, you'll
never come up empty handed when searching for your favorite
music again,"' attorneys for the recording industry wrote
in their brief.
"The recording industry also said Napster benefited
financially from the free trade of copyrighted music, because
the company based its value on the quantity and quality of
songs available through its network...
"The record companies are seeking the maximum
statutory damages of $100,000 for each work infringed and
believe the total amount of damages will exceed $100 million."
Read the entire story
here
(registration required).
Bob Bellin
refers to, and quotes, the CNet News excerpt we ran in RAIN
here...
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"Can
market forces really exist under an oligopoly?"
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"Not surprisingly, the RIAA bashed the
bill, saying it favors government regulation over market forces."
Maybe. Or maybe it allows market forces to exist that
wouldn't otherwise. Most laws that restrict business are,
in some way, intended to do that or to protect consumers.
Some of those laws are more effective than others, but that's
usually the goal.
Given that all of the offerings proposed thus far
ignore consumer preference (leasing files, not buying them,
no way to transfer music to portable devices and CDs, etc.)
it would appear that something other than market forces are
at work here, hence an attempt at legislative relief.
Perhaps more to the point...can market forces really
exist under an Oligopoly? Particularly if the Oligopoly's
interests are represented by a single trade organization that
represents all of the members interests and speaks for them
unilaterally?
"A protracted legislative fight will not move us closer
to where the music industry wants to be..."
Protracted legislative fights didn't scare the RIAA off
when they bamboozled Congress into passing the DMCA, a law
which they crafted to serve their interests alone. Protracted
court fights don't seem to deter the RIAA either when they
perceive their interest to be threatened.
"Where the music industry wants to be..."
...is not necessarily where the marketplace wants it
to be. The music industry wants to be selling CD's...period.
The lack of appealing digital music offerings from them combined
with their refusal to sell reasonably priced/formatted licenses
to anyone who wants to court consumers makes that clear. And
so...the dispute has been framed.
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Bob Bellin
"Self-appointed RIAA watchdog"
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"Looks
like we indeed made a good choice..."
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KHYI was originally webcasting with Magnitude
Network in a barter deal for online banner ads. The banner
ad market turned to mush, and Magnitude had to sell out to
Global Media, which
in turn sold out to SurferNetwork. SurferNetwork hoped to
make money by selling ad space on their "custom" player, which
was kind of like selling ad space on the dial of your car
radio -- do you "watch" your radio?
SurferNetwork was in the midst of figuring out what
sort of deal to offer when their contract ran out with their
bandwidth provider, and KHYI (and dozens of other stations)
went off the 'Net.
At this point, KHYI decided to go with
WarpRadio.com,
with local streaming services provided by
Neologism.com. Both partners have been steady as a rock and
incredibly responsive whenever problems have come up. And
when one of WarpRadio's advertising partners went belly-up,
WarpRadio was very clear and up-front about the effect it
would have on their stations -- no having to guess what they
were going to do next! You can tell a lot about a company
by how they respond when things *don't* go right.
Meanwhile, SurferNetwork is rumored to be unable to
pay its bandwidth bill -- AGAIN? Looks like we indeed made
a good choice, doesn't it!
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Robert Brooks
KHYI Webmaster
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"I
just hope some of us will survive this washout..."
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The infant industry of webcasting faces
yet another black day. Stream providers are being choked off
by ever spiraling cost from host providers. IMG2 has packed
it in (as a stream provider), Streamguys is suffering badly
from cost increases, and death rattles can be heard in other
places.
Good business models, or poor, seem to be equally
at jeopardy. It seems that just as this industry got up on
two legs from it's crawling stages, it faces near extinction.
It almost seems that major providers are hedging bets
that the larger companies will need more services then are
currently available to supply so they feel the need to cleanse
the pipes. Advertisers are sitting back waiting for things
to "resolve" themselves before unleashing the dollars that
are sorely needed by this industry. Venture capital is just
about gone with few exceptions.
I just hope that some of us will survive this washout
to be able to continue to provide the much needed competition
to the current sources of information and content. It is my
fear that when the successful business model is found, the
costs will be so inhibitive that the smaller independents
will be lost. Dreams will return to dreams and reality will
resume.
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Allen Rehmann
Owndog's Musical Journey
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