FilmOn X CEO Alkiviades David says that regardless of the Supreme Court's decision in the Aereo case, FilmOn X's business will survive because only 3% relies on free-to-air TV and most relies on licensed content and social video features. David plans to file a motion for FilmOn X to intervene in the Aereo case to argue their separate position that their technology is more evolved than Aereo's. Experts debate whether Congress anticipated how new technologies could impact terms like "performance" in copyright law, and what the implications may be of the Supreme Court's upcoming decision in the Aereo case.
This document provides information about a webinar on consumer protection laws regarding telephone and mail agreements. It is presented by Community Law School (Sarnia-Lambton) Inc., a nonprofit legal education organization, and facilitated by Your Legal Rights, a website providing legal information. Funding is provided by the Law Foundation of Ontario. The webinar will cover what constitutes a remote agreement under consumer protection law, consumers' rights before and regarding remote agreements, unfair business practices, and how to enforce rights. It will also discuss warranties and quality of work as well as options for resolving disputes such as rescission, complaints to the Ministry of Consumer Services, and civil lawsuits.
This class action lawsuit alleges that Cheyenne Medical LLC, doing business as Thrive Cannabis Marketplace, violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending unsolicited marketing text messages to the plaintiff's cellular phone using an automatic telephone dialing system, without her prior express written consent. The complaint alleges the plaintiff received multiple marketing texts from Thrive promoting discounts and deals. If the class is certified, the plaintiff seeks statutory damages for herself and all others similarly situated for Thrive's negligent and willful TCPA violations.
Recent Developments in Proving Damages in Intellectual Property DisputesParsons Behle & Latimer
The document summarizes a presentation given on November 13, 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah on intellectual property damages. The presentation covered trends in patent damages after the Uniloc case, new approaches to calculating patent damages, recent developments in trademark damages awards, recent decisions on proving copyright damages, and alternative theories for trade secret damages cases. It provided details on methodologies for calculating lost profits and reasonable royalties in patent cases, challenges in applying the entire market value rule, proving non-infringing alternatives, and issues relating to foreign sales and the Nash bargaining solution in damages analyses.
This document provides solutions to 40 questions for a law school final exam. It addresses a range of legal topics including torts, contracts, employment law, intellectual property, and environmental law. Specific issues covered include premises liability, product disparagement, employment discrimination, workplace safety regulations, and patent restrictions.
This document provides information about a webinar on consumer protection laws regarding telephone and mail agreements. It is presented by Community Law School (Sarnia-Lambton) Inc., a nonprofit legal education organization, and facilitated by Your Legal Rights, a website providing legal information. Funding is provided by the Law Foundation of Ontario. The webinar will cover what constitutes a remote agreement under consumer protection law, consumers' rights before and regarding remote agreements, unfair business practices, and how to enforce rights. It will also discuss warranties and quality of work as well as options for resolving disputes such as rescission, complaints to the Ministry of Consumer Services, and civil lawsuits.
This class action lawsuit alleges that Cheyenne Medical LLC, doing business as Thrive Cannabis Marketplace, violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending unsolicited marketing text messages to the plaintiff's cellular phone using an automatic telephone dialing system, without her prior express written consent. The complaint alleges the plaintiff received multiple marketing texts from Thrive promoting discounts and deals. If the class is certified, the plaintiff seeks statutory damages for herself and all others similarly situated for Thrive's negligent and willful TCPA violations.
Recent Developments in Proving Damages in Intellectual Property DisputesParsons Behle & Latimer
The document summarizes a presentation given on November 13, 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah on intellectual property damages. The presentation covered trends in patent damages after the Uniloc case, new approaches to calculating patent damages, recent developments in trademark damages awards, recent decisions on proving copyright damages, and alternative theories for trade secret damages cases. It provided details on methodologies for calculating lost profits and reasonable royalties in patent cases, challenges in applying the entire market value rule, proving non-infringing alternatives, and issues relating to foreign sales and the Nash bargaining solution in damages analyses.
This document provides solutions to 40 questions for a law school final exam. It addresses a range of legal topics including torts, contracts, employment law, intellectual property, and environmental law. Specific issues covered include premises liability, product disparagement, employment discrimination, workplace safety regulations, and patent restrictions.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS J. ROSCH FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION-FTC, USA
J. Thomas Rosch was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission January
5, 2006, to a term that expires in September 2012.
Rosch joined the FTC from the San Francisco office of Latham & Watkins, where he was the
former managing partner and most recently a partner, working in the firm‟s antitrust and trade
practices group. Rosch served as chair of the American Bar Association‟s Antitrust Section in
1990, and he has chaired the California Bar Association‟s Antitrust Section. He served as the
FTC‟s Bureau of Consumer Protection director from 1973 to 1975, and in 1989 was a member
of the Special Committee to Study the Role of the FTC.
Nationally regarded for his antitrust and trade regulation law expertise and as a Fellow of the
American College of Trial Lawyers for more than 20 years, he has been lead counsel in more than 100 federal
and state court antitrust cases and has more than 40 years experience before the Bar. In 2003, Rosch was
honored as Antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the California State Bar Antitrust Section. He obtained his LLB from
Harvard University in 1965 and was a Knox Fellow at Cambridge in 1962.
Rosch is married with two children and four grandchildren.
This class action complaint alleges that OG Collective, LLC violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending unsolicited marketing text messages to the plaintiff's cellular phone using an automatic telephone dialing system. The complaint alleges that beginning in December 2019, the plaintiff received multiple text messages from the defendant advertising discounts and promotions for their recreational and medical marijuana dispensary without the plaintiff's consent. The plaintiff is seeking to represent a class of all similarly situated individuals who received illegal telemarketing texts from the defendant.
This document summarizes a court ruling on a motion to dismiss claims against three investors in Veoh Networks Inc. for secondary copyright infringement. The court held that while the complaint alleged the investors obtained control of Veoh through board seats and financing, it did not sufficiently plead that the investors were significantly involved in Veoh's alleged infringing activities to state valid claims of contributory copyright infringement against the investors. As a result, the court granted the investors' motion to dismiss the secondary liability claims against them.
A report from the Writer's Guild of America on how media mergers has not benefitted writers or consumers and criticizes the government for failing to enforce anti-trust rules.
Mediacom executives almost arrested for signal theft?Kraig Beahn
This document is EchoStar Satellite LLC's response to Mediacom Communications Corporation's motion to dismiss or transfer a case regarding the retransmission of local television channels. EchoStar argues that the court has specific personal jurisdiction over Mediacom because Mediacom purposefully directed tortious actions at Colorado by illegally obtaining and redistributing a television channel that EchoStar had purchased the rights to distribute. EchoStar asserts that Mediacom's actions caused harm in Colorado and that requiring Mediacom to appear in court would be consistent with due process.
Need help figuring out what to do with the 12 propositions you'll face on your November ballot? Every year the Southwest California legislative Council assigns our members a measure to research and present. The Council debates the issue based on what impact it will have on our business community and recommends a position. As always, we encourage voters to do their own research and to that end we have a much more extensive document available with all the arguments pro and con, what your vote means, and follow the money.
The document appears to be about exposing crimes committed by the Pakistan Army. In 3 sentences or less, it was not possible to determine any essential information or high-level details about specific crimes, events, or findings from the minimal title provided in the document.
There are two main types of computer memory: volatile and non-volatile. Volatile memory, like RAM, loses its stored data when power is removed but is fast, while non-volatile memory, like ROM, retains data without power but is slower. RAM is the primary memory for running programs and comes in types like SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, DDR2 SDRAM, and DDR3 SDRAM that have faster data transfer speeds. Caches and registers are even faster but smaller memory types close to the CPU. Non-volatile memory includes ROM for long-term storage and flash memory for rewritable storage.
Alv object model simple 2 d table - event handlinganil kumar
This document describes how to implement event handling for the ALV object model in ABAP. It provides code for a sample program that displays a simple 2D table using the ALV grid and handles the ADDED_FUNCTION and DOUBLE_CLICK events. A local class is used as the event handler, and methods are defined for each event. The event handler methods retrieve data from the selected row and display messages.
Campaña Nacional de Salud en Planificación Familiar. Paquetes de Clínica CentralINPPARES / Perú
Este documento describe una campaña nacional de salud en planificación familiar que ofrece consejería gratuita y métodos anticonceptivos a bajo costo, incluyendo la píldora, inyectable, condón, implante subdérmico y DIU de cobre, con el objetivo de informar a las personas que existe un método adecuado para cada uno. La campaña tendrá lugar de octubre a diciembre del 2014 en la Clínica Central del INPPARES.
The document discusses the accounting equation and how it is affected by business transactions.
The accounting equation states that total assets are equal to total liabilities plus owner's equity. It must always balance as transactions occur. Several examples are provided of how common business transactions like purchases, sales, expenses, and cash payments impact the accounting equation by increasing or decreasing different accounts. The procedure for preparing accounting equations based on transaction details is also outlined.
Este documento presenta un examen de física de grado 10 con 4 preguntas. La primera pregunta pide calcular el desplazamiento total y espacio recorrido de un movimiento. Las preguntas 2 y 3 piden describir el desplazamiento mostrado en gráficas de posición contra tiempo y calcular valores relacionados. La cuarta pregunta proporciona una tabla de posiciones en función del tiempo y pide dibujar la gráfica correspondiente.
Ana Teresa Torres es una de las escritoras venezolanas más populares, con miles de copias vendidas de cada uno de sus libros. Nacida en 1945 en Caracas, Torres es ampliamente reconocida y discutida tanto por otros literatos como por lectores comunes en Venezuela. Su nuevo libro, "Para vivir en otra piel por un tiempo", continúa explorando temas que la han hecho una autora tan receptiva en su país natal.
The document summarizes several topics in trademark and copyright law from a legal conference, including:
1) Updates to federal and state trademark registration processes and hot topics in trademark litigation.
2) Recent copyright cases on issues like orphan works, public display of copyrighted broadcasts, and performance royalties for artists.
3) A summary of the Perfect 10 v. Google case regarding search engines and copyright infringement.
[The Impact of the Internet on the Video Rental Industry.docxdanielfoster65629
[The Impact of the Internet on the Video Rental
Industry: Blockbuster vs. Netflix]
2
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 3
VIDEO RENTAL INDUSTRY ANALYSIS 5
BLOCKBUSTER BUSINESS DESCRIPTION 7
BLOCKBUSTER BUSINESS MODEL 7
BLOCKBUSTER HISTORY 8
BLOCKBUSTER SWOT ANALYSIS 10
NETFLIX BUSINESS DESCRIPTION 14
NETFLIX BUSINESS MODEL 14
NETFLIX HISTORY 15
COMPETING ONLINE SERVICES 16
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS 18
THE FUTURE OF THE VIDEO RENTAL INDUSTRY 24
CONCLUSION 25
REFERENCES 26
3
The Impact of the Internet on Video
Rentals: Blockbuster vs. Netflix
Could Brick and Mortar Video Rental Stores be a thing of the past? The Internet has
challenged the way movies are rented in the United States. Blockbuster, one of the
biggest video rental companies, has completely restructured its operations to meet the
market demands due to the emergence of the Internet and companies like Netflix. The
first impact the online video rental industry made on Blockbuster was making late fees
obsolete. Blockbuster enacted a “no late fees” policy in 2004 to remain competitive in the
industry. The company gave up about $450 million in late fee revenue and $250 million
to $300 million in operating income the first year the policy was enacted (Halkias). This
is not counting the increased number of new releases the company needed to purchase to
meet customer demand due to the policy. Under the "no late fees" program, a customer
was charged the purchase price for a movie if it was kept longer than 14 days. The charge
was dropped if it was returned within 30 days, and the customer was then charged a $1.25
restocking fee (Halkias). Blockbuster then created Blockbuster Total Access in attempts
to compete in the online video rental market. With Blockbuster Total Access, customers
would pay a subscription fee of $24.99 a month and rent up to 2 movies online at a time.
4
Netflix, the online DVD rental pioneer, sold a similar service for $21.99 a month.
Company CEO, John Antioco, said the overall online subscriber market is about 3
million to 5 million households, and he believes Blockbuster can attract a 30 percent
market share (Halkias). Blockbuster spent between 70 and 90 million dollars on the Total
Access program in hopes of reinventing itself. Program costs and continued decline in
rentals caused the company’s 2004 earnings to fall about 10 percent below the $1.48 a
share earned in 2003 (Halkias). The company will have to continue developing in this $8
billion dollar a year industry as it continues to change. Within another four years,
customers are expected to spend about $1.7 billion getting movies from cable to watch at
their convenience (Cohen). The video rental industry is also moving to legal downloading
sites such as CinemaNow Inc. Founded in 1999, the service lets people download movies
as a rental with a viewing window, or buy the film outright and burn it on a di.
NBCUniversal will soon make its TV content available to stream on set-top streaming devices like Apple TV and Roku. Jennifer Pirot of NBCUniversal said they are working to finalize negotiations with set-top box makers and plan to have their content available on devices by the end of the year. Currently, NBCUniversal content is only available via apps on mobile devices. HBO has seen more success in making its content widely available across devices because it started earlier with its HBO Go app and has a larger library of content to choose from compared to broadcast networks like NBC.
The document discusses proposals to free up unused television spectrum for wireless broadband use. It notes that Google has argued that most spectrum goes unused and could provide economic and social gains if used more efficiently. The document also discusses Bill Gates lobbying the FCC to free up more TV airwaves for WiFi and wireless broadband access, especially in less dense areas. However, some industry groups oppose unlicensed uses of spectrum due to concerns about interference. The document advocates freeing up a 30MHz block of unlicensed spectrum in Europe to help make the market more competitive and provide cheaper internet access.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS J. ROSCH FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION-FTC, USA
J. Thomas Rosch was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission January
5, 2006, to a term that expires in September 2012.
Rosch joined the FTC from the San Francisco office of Latham & Watkins, where he was the
former managing partner and most recently a partner, working in the firm‟s antitrust and trade
practices group. Rosch served as chair of the American Bar Association‟s Antitrust Section in
1990, and he has chaired the California Bar Association‟s Antitrust Section. He served as the
FTC‟s Bureau of Consumer Protection director from 1973 to 1975, and in 1989 was a member
of the Special Committee to Study the Role of the FTC.
Nationally regarded for his antitrust and trade regulation law expertise and as a Fellow of the
American College of Trial Lawyers for more than 20 years, he has been lead counsel in more than 100 federal
and state court antitrust cases and has more than 40 years experience before the Bar. In 2003, Rosch was
honored as Antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the California State Bar Antitrust Section. He obtained his LLB from
Harvard University in 1965 and was a Knox Fellow at Cambridge in 1962.
Rosch is married with two children and four grandchildren.
This class action complaint alleges that OG Collective, LLC violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending unsolicited marketing text messages to the plaintiff's cellular phone using an automatic telephone dialing system. The complaint alleges that beginning in December 2019, the plaintiff received multiple text messages from the defendant advertising discounts and promotions for their recreational and medical marijuana dispensary without the plaintiff's consent. The plaintiff is seeking to represent a class of all similarly situated individuals who received illegal telemarketing texts from the defendant.
This document summarizes a court ruling on a motion to dismiss claims against three investors in Veoh Networks Inc. for secondary copyright infringement. The court held that while the complaint alleged the investors obtained control of Veoh through board seats and financing, it did not sufficiently plead that the investors were significantly involved in Veoh's alleged infringing activities to state valid claims of contributory copyright infringement against the investors. As a result, the court granted the investors' motion to dismiss the secondary liability claims against them.
A report from the Writer's Guild of America on how media mergers has not benefitted writers or consumers and criticizes the government for failing to enforce anti-trust rules.
Mediacom executives almost arrested for signal theft?Kraig Beahn
This document is EchoStar Satellite LLC's response to Mediacom Communications Corporation's motion to dismiss or transfer a case regarding the retransmission of local television channels. EchoStar argues that the court has specific personal jurisdiction over Mediacom because Mediacom purposefully directed tortious actions at Colorado by illegally obtaining and redistributing a television channel that EchoStar had purchased the rights to distribute. EchoStar asserts that Mediacom's actions caused harm in Colorado and that requiring Mediacom to appear in court would be consistent with due process.
Need help figuring out what to do with the 12 propositions you'll face on your November ballot? Every year the Southwest California legislative Council assigns our members a measure to research and present. The Council debates the issue based on what impact it will have on our business community and recommends a position. As always, we encourage voters to do their own research and to that end we have a much more extensive document available with all the arguments pro and con, what your vote means, and follow the money.
The document appears to be about exposing crimes committed by the Pakistan Army. In 3 sentences or less, it was not possible to determine any essential information or high-level details about specific crimes, events, or findings from the minimal title provided in the document.
There are two main types of computer memory: volatile and non-volatile. Volatile memory, like RAM, loses its stored data when power is removed but is fast, while non-volatile memory, like ROM, retains data without power but is slower. RAM is the primary memory for running programs and comes in types like SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, DDR2 SDRAM, and DDR3 SDRAM that have faster data transfer speeds. Caches and registers are even faster but smaller memory types close to the CPU. Non-volatile memory includes ROM for long-term storage and flash memory for rewritable storage.
Alv object model simple 2 d table - event handlinganil kumar
This document describes how to implement event handling for the ALV object model in ABAP. It provides code for a sample program that displays a simple 2D table using the ALV grid and handles the ADDED_FUNCTION and DOUBLE_CLICK events. A local class is used as the event handler, and methods are defined for each event. The event handler methods retrieve data from the selected row and display messages.
Campaña Nacional de Salud en Planificación Familiar. Paquetes de Clínica CentralINPPARES / Perú
Este documento describe una campaña nacional de salud en planificación familiar que ofrece consejería gratuita y métodos anticonceptivos a bajo costo, incluyendo la píldora, inyectable, condón, implante subdérmico y DIU de cobre, con el objetivo de informar a las personas que existe un método adecuado para cada uno. La campaña tendrá lugar de octubre a diciembre del 2014 en la Clínica Central del INPPARES.
The document discusses the accounting equation and how it is affected by business transactions.
The accounting equation states that total assets are equal to total liabilities plus owner's equity. It must always balance as transactions occur. Several examples are provided of how common business transactions like purchases, sales, expenses, and cash payments impact the accounting equation by increasing or decreasing different accounts. The procedure for preparing accounting equations based on transaction details is also outlined.
Este documento presenta un examen de física de grado 10 con 4 preguntas. La primera pregunta pide calcular el desplazamiento total y espacio recorrido de un movimiento. Las preguntas 2 y 3 piden describir el desplazamiento mostrado en gráficas de posición contra tiempo y calcular valores relacionados. La cuarta pregunta proporciona una tabla de posiciones en función del tiempo y pide dibujar la gráfica correspondiente.
Ana Teresa Torres es una de las escritoras venezolanas más populares, con miles de copias vendidas de cada uno de sus libros. Nacida en 1945 en Caracas, Torres es ampliamente reconocida y discutida tanto por otros literatos como por lectores comunes en Venezuela. Su nuevo libro, "Para vivir en otra piel por un tiempo", continúa explorando temas que la han hecho una autora tan receptiva en su país natal.
The document summarizes several topics in trademark and copyright law from a legal conference, including:
1) Updates to federal and state trademark registration processes and hot topics in trademark litigation.
2) Recent copyright cases on issues like orphan works, public display of copyrighted broadcasts, and performance royalties for artists.
3) A summary of the Perfect 10 v. Google case regarding search engines and copyright infringement.
[The Impact of the Internet on the Video Rental Industry.docxdanielfoster65629
[The Impact of the Internet on the Video Rental
Industry: Blockbuster vs. Netflix]
2
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 3
VIDEO RENTAL INDUSTRY ANALYSIS 5
BLOCKBUSTER BUSINESS DESCRIPTION 7
BLOCKBUSTER BUSINESS MODEL 7
BLOCKBUSTER HISTORY 8
BLOCKBUSTER SWOT ANALYSIS 10
NETFLIX BUSINESS DESCRIPTION 14
NETFLIX BUSINESS MODEL 14
NETFLIX HISTORY 15
COMPETING ONLINE SERVICES 16
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS 18
THE FUTURE OF THE VIDEO RENTAL INDUSTRY 24
CONCLUSION 25
REFERENCES 26
3
The Impact of the Internet on Video
Rentals: Blockbuster vs. Netflix
Could Brick and Mortar Video Rental Stores be a thing of the past? The Internet has
challenged the way movies are rented in the United States. Blockbuster, one of the
biggest video rental companies, has completely restructured its operations to meet the
market demands due to the emergence of the Internet and companies like Netflix. The
first impact the online video rental industry made on Blockbuster was making late fees
obsolete. Blockbuster enacted a “no late fees” policy in 2004 to remain competitive in the
industry. The company gave up about $450 million in late fee revenue and $250 million
to $300 million in operating income the first year the policy was enacted (Halkias). This
is not counting the increased number of new releases the company needed to purchase to
meet customer demand due to the policy. Under the "no late fees" program, a customer
was charged the purchase price for a movie if it was kept longer than 14 days. The charge
was dropped if it was returned within 30 days, and the customer was then charged a $1.25
restocking fee (Halkias). Blockbuster then created Blockbuster Total Access in attempts
to compete in the online video rental market. With Blockbuster Total Access, customers
would pay a subscription fee of $24.99 a month and rent up to 2 movies online at a time.
4
Netflix, the online DVD rental pioneer, sold a similar service for $21.99 a month.
Company CEO, John Antioco, said the overall online subscriber market is about 3
million to 5 million households, and he believes Blockbuster can attract a 30 percent
market share (Halkias). Blockbuster spent between 70 and 90 million dollars on the Total
Access program in hopes of reinventing itself. Program costs and continued decline in
rentals caused the company’s 2004 earnings to fall about 10 percent below the $1.48 a
share earned in 2003 (Halkias). The company will have to continue developing in this $8
billion dollar a year industry as it continues to change. Within another four years,
customers are expected to spend about $1.7 billion getting movies from cable to watch at
their convenience (Cohen). The video rental industry is also moving to legal downloading
sites such as CinemaNow Inc. Founded in 1999, the service lets people download movies
as a rental with a viewing window, or buy the film outright and burn it on a di.
NBCUniversal will soon make its TV content available to stream on set-top streaming devices like Apple TV and Roku. Jennifer Pirot of NBCUniversal said they are working to finalize negotiations with set-top box makers and plan to have their content available on devices by the end of the year. Currently, NBCUniversal content is only available via apps on mobile devices. HBO has seen more success in making its content widely available across devices because it started earlier with its HBO Go app and has a larger library of content to choose from compared to broadcast networks like NBC.
The document discusses proposals to free up unused television spectrum for wireless broadband use. It notes that Google has argued that most spectrum goes unused and could provide economic and social gains if used more efficiently. The document also discusses Bill Gates lobbying the FCC to free up more TV airwaves for WiFi and wireless broadband access, especially in less dense areas. However, some industry groups oppose unlicensed uses of spectrum due to concerns about interference. The document advocates freeing up a 30MHz block of unlicensed spectrum in Europe to help make the market more competitive and provide cheaper internet access.
Barry Diller's IAC backs Aereo TV, a startup that streams live over-the-air TV to internet-connected devices using individual antennas assigned to each user, mimicking a 2008 ruling that remote DVR services did not violate copyright. Aereo argues each antenna functions separately while broadcasters say they function collectively, but so far courts have sided with Aereo. Aereo aims to capitalize on cable cord-cutting by younger internet-only users and advances in cloud storage and streaming technology to make the service economically viable.
Within the roof of the luxury developing at the edge of Central Park, 585 ft previously mentioned the concrete, an attorney named David Goodfriend has attached a modest 4-foot antenna That may be a risk to the complete Tv set-industrial intricate.
The device is there to soak up TV indicators coursing from the air — content material from NBC, ABC, Fox, PBS and CBS, which include megahits like “This can be Us” which Sunday’s broadcast of Tremendous Bowl LIII. As soon as plucked with the ether, the content is piped by way of the web and assembled into an app referred to as Locast. It’s a streaming provider, and it would make all this community programming available to subscribers in ways in which tend to be more easy than counting on a house antenna: It’s viewable on Nearly any gadget, at any time, in pristine high-quality that doesn’t cut in and out. It’s also completely totally free.
This document summarizes an article about how the largest internet content providers like Netflix, Google, and Apple may bypass internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast and Verizon by building their own broadband infrastructure in response to the lack of net neutrality regulations. The FCC's net neutrality rules were struck down by a court, allowing ISPs to potentially charge content companies for priority access. Netflix then saw slower streaming speeds on Comcast and Verizon and made a deal with Comcast to pay an unknown fee to maintain streaming quality. This sets a precedent where content companies must pay ISPs or risk being "throttled." However, content companies may disintermediate ISPs entirely by building their own broadband networks, widening the
The newsletter summarizes recent developments in construction adjudication in the UK and abroad. It discusses trends seen in UK adjudication statistics over the past 18 years, such as an increase in lawyer-led adjudications, higher adjudicator fees, and more referrals through TECBAR. It also previews potential impacts of Brexit and lists upcoming conferences on construction law and adjudication. International sections briefly outline proposed security of payment legislation in Hong Kong and appointments to Ireland's Construction Contracts Adjudication Panel.
The document discusses the origins and evolution of the net neutrality debate in the United States. It outlines key events and perspectives from both supporters and opponents of net neutrality. These include the initial coining of the term in 2002, various FCC rulings and policy statements, lobbying efforts, and legal challenges around issues like the Comcast throttling case and FCC regulations. The debate remains ongoing with shifting positions of government agencies and industry groups.
Future of Internet Copyrights: Recent Cases and Congressrimonlaw
Congress is currently considering whether copyright law needs to be overhauled for the digital era. Despite the explosion in innovation and creativity on the Internet since passage of the DMCA 15 years ago, tensions have been growing between content owners and technology providers, leading to high profile clashes that will impact the future of the Internet, innovation, and creativity. We will review ongoing Congressional hearings and recent cases that set the stage for these policy discussions and future legislation.
Online and across borders: a net gain for technology companies?Gareth Dickson
A look at how recent judgments on jurisdiction might affect companies doing business online, together with some practical tips for how to make sure these rules do not catch you out
Business at&t to buy directv in $49 billion deal, creating pay tvhoney690131
AT&T agreed to acquire DirecTV for $49 billion, creating a new pay-TV giant with 26 million subscribers. This deal, along with Comcast's acquisition of Time Warner Cable, shows how telecom and media companies are consolidating to gain scale and leverage in response to changes in media consumption and competition from online streaming services. The AT&T-DirecTV merger will make AT&T a stronger competitor in pay TV and mobile services, but may face regulatory scrutiny over its impact on competition and consumer prices.
This document discusses two case studies related to copyright infringement on online platforms:
1) Viacom v. YouTube: The Second Circuit ruled that YouTube was still eligible for safe harbor protections under the DMCA even if generally aware of infringement, as long as it was not aware of specific instances. It remanded the case to determine if YouTube had specific knowledge or was willfully blind.
2) SCIL v. YouTube: The Delhi High Court granted an injunction against YouTube for displaying and profiting from SCIL's copyrighted songs without permission, causing SCIL revenue losses. The court found YouTube intended to profit at SCIL's expense.
The document discusses the history of net neutrality in the United States. It describes how (1) the issue first emerged in 2002; (2) supporters argued the open internet must be preserved while opponents said regulation was unnecessary; and (3) the policy debate continued through the 2000s with various laws and court rulings affecting the FCC's ability to enforce net neutrality principles.
THIS IS AN ARTICLE PLEASE GIVE ANSWERS FOR THE QUESTIONS (THE PROBLE.pdfinfo824691
THIS IS AN ARTICLE PLEASE GIVE ANSWERS FOR THE QUESTIONS (THE
PROBLEM)
Closing Case Network Neutrality Wars
The explosive growth of streaming video and mobile technologies is creating bandwidth
problems over the Internet. The Internet was designed to transmit content such as e-mails and
Web pages. However, media items being transmitted across the Internet today, such as high-
definition movies, are vastly larger in size. To compound this problem, there are (in early 2015)
over 180 million smartphone users in the United States, many of whom use the Internet to stream
video content to their phones. The Internet bandwidth issue is as much about economics as it is
about technology. Currently, consumers can send 1-kilobyte e-mails or watch the latest 30-
gigabyte movie on their large-screen televisions for the same monthly broadband fee. Unlike the
system used for power and water bills where higher usage results in higher fees, monthly
broadband fees are not tied to consumer usage. A study from Juniper Networks
(www.juniper.net) highlights this “revenue-per-bit” problem. The report predicts that Internet
revenue for carriers such as AT&T (www.att.com) and Comcast (www.comcast.com) will grow
by 5 percent per year through 2020. At the same time, Internet traffic will increase by 27 percent
annually, meaning that carriers will have to increase their bandwidth investment by 20 percent
per year just to keep up with demand. Under this model, the carrier’s business models will face
pressures, because their total necessary investment will exceed revenue growth. Few industry
analysts expect carriers to stop investing in new capacity. Nevertheless, analysts agree that a
financial crunch is coming. As Internet traffic soars, analysts expect revenue per megabit to
decrease. These figures translate into a far lower return on investment (ROI). Although carriers
can find ways to increase their capacity, it will be difficult for them to reap any revenue benefits
from doing so. The heart of the problem is that, even if the technology is equal to the task of
transmitting huge amounts of data, no one is sure how to pay for these technologies. One
proposed solution is to eliminate network neutrality. (A POSSIBLE SOLUTION)Network
neutrality is an operating model under which Internet service providers (ISPs) must allow
customers equal access to content and applications, regardless of the source or nature of the
content. That is, Internet backbone carriers must treat all Web traffic equally, not charging
different rates by user, content, site, platform, or application. Telecommunications and cable
companies want to replace network neutrality with an arrangement in which they can charge
differentiated prices based on the amount of bandwidth consumed by the content that is being
delivered over the Internet. These companies believe that differentiated pricing is the most
equitable method by which they can finance the necessary investments in their network
infrastructures. .
This document discusses the evolving role of intermediaries on the internet and challenges of regulating their liability for user-generated content. It provides examples of early court cases that established intermediary liability principles and summarizes safe harbor provisions and other legislation that have sought to limit intermediary liability by implementing notice-and-takedown regimes and graduated response policies for copyright infringement. It also discusses ongoing legal cases and policy debates around intermediary liability and how countries are approaching regulation.
This document provides summaries of international news from Australia, Brazil, and proposed amendments to copyright law.
- In Australia, Sony is testing new anti-circumvention laws by suing a company that sells devices to circumvent protections on PlayStation games. The ACCC has been granted permission to provide its perspective on interpreting the new laws.
- Brazil is discussing changes to its transfer pricing rules to include intellectual property rights and limit royalty payments to a percentage of net sales. This would impact existing trademark, patent, and copyright license agreements.
- Proposed amendments to copyright law in an unnamed country aim to eliminate unequal treatment of nationalities and clarify rules around technological protection measures for copyrighted works.
Sony cut prices on select LCD TVs by up to $500 and launched new scan down promotions to close the gap with rivals like Samsung. Specific models saw price cuts of $200 to $500, and some TVs were paired with $100 to $300 scan down promotions running through early August. Sony appears to be most aggressively promoting its Z5100 TV series, which are paired with $300 scan downs in July reducing to $200 in August. The moves aim to make Sony more competitive against manufacturers such as Samsung.
Sony owns dozens of recent patents on 3-D technology covering auto-stereoscopic displays that don't require glasses as well as those that do. Sony's work includes screens that use piezoelectric drivers or switch light sources to create parallax effects for glasses-free 3D. Other patents describe 3D projection systems and a way to deliver stereoscopic images to the PSP handheld device.
Vic Pacor is leaving his role as CEO of D&M Holdings after only two months in the position. Pacor's decision to leave was his own and he will be pursuing other entrepreneurial opportunities. Yvonne Hao, an executive from Bain Capital which acquired D&M last year, will replace Pacor as CEO. Pioneer is exiting the plasma TV business and will focus more on audio products, relying more heavily on independent dealers and specialty retailers for sales. Pioneer halted plasma TV production this month and will sell through remaining inventory over the next 6-7 months.
The document discusses issues surrounding the digital television transition that were raised at an FCC meeting. Commissioners expressed concerns about potential reception problems as analog and digital coverage areas diverge for some viewers. While the early February analog shutoffs went smoothly overall, some viewers may lose stations and need to adjust antennas or take other steps. The FCC and NTIA will focus outreach efforts on the estimated 5 million households that remain unprepared.
Qualcomm is seeing strong demand from device makers for its new Snapdragon 805 Ultra HD mobile processor. Several manufacturers have already committed to using the new processor in 2014. Qualcomm sees growth opportunities in Ultra HD displays and wearable devices like smart watches. While Qualcomm plans to sell its Toq smart watch, its ultimate goal is to sell smart watch components to other manufacturers.
Sony announced that all PS3 systems will be upgradeable through firmware updates to play 3D content from 2010 onward. This positions the PS3's 3D compatibility as a key advantage over other consoles. There has been some debate about whether current PS3 and Blu-ray player hardware can handle 3D with just a firmware update. Sony says it can for the PS3, while Panasonic says it's not possible for their Blu-ray players. Sony is looking to establish 3D formats for Blu-ray discs, HDMI and broadcast TV as it rolls out 3D gaming and movie content on the PS3.
Hundreds of consumers turned out for PS4 launch events in New York on Thursday night and Friday morning. GameStop stores had limited quantities of PS4s available for customers who did not pre-order the console, with some stores only having around 100 units. Popular launch games for the PS4 included Killzone: Shadow Fall, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Madden NFL 25, and NBA 2K14. Customer demand was similar for the PS4 and upcoming Xbox One launch, but PS4s tended to have a slight edge in sales at some GameStop locations.
Both sides were upbeat after the Supreme Court oral arguments in the case regarding California's law banning the sale of violent video games to minors. While it was difficult to predict how the court would rule based on the questions and comments from the justices, representatives from both sides felt their attorneys effectively made their cases. The justices raised concerns about the vagueness of the law and whether it could apply to other forms of media. The court will make a ruling in the coming months.
Camera manufacturers are shifting their product mixes away from point-and-shoot cameras towards interchangeable lens cameras like SLRs due to declining point-and-shoot sales driven by smartphone proliferation. They are emphasizing features like long zooms, WiFi connectivity, and weather-sealing in compact cameras to differentiate from smartphones. Canon announced new full-frame DSLRs including the EOS 6D, its lowest priced full-frame model to date, while Pentax is seeing demand for its recently announced K-5 II and K-5 IIs models. Fujifilm is expanding its X-Series mirrorless line.
NATM retailers are surviving but not thriving in 2010 due to a challenging business environment with slow sales, weakening margins, and overuse of scan-down rebates and bundles by manufacturers. While NATM sales increased in 2010 due to members like P.C. Richard joining, overall consumer electronics sales are flat and inventory levels are high. Scan-down deals further reduce retailer margins and bundled items impact profits on goods they normally make good margins on. The introduction of 3D TVs also poses challenges without much 3D content available.
P.C. Richard & Son plans to continue opening new stores, even as it waits for the economy to improve. It recently opened two more stores, including one in a former Circuit City location. P.C. Richard also renovated its existing stores and expanded its product offerings, such as video games, which have been very successful. The company's president said opportunities from Circuit City's exit allowed them to enter new markets. He is hopeful supplies of popular products will be adequate for the holidays.
The document provides an overview of the consumer electronics industry outlook according to NPD analyst Stephen Baker. While there are challenges in 2010, Baker says there are more reasons for hope than despair, including growing demand for 3D TVs and digital SLR cameras. Baker notes opportunities for CE retailers in the shift to large-screen TVs, importance of knowledgeable salespeople, and ability to sell accessories and peripherals through multimedia devices. However, consumer confidence remains weak and many consumers are waiting for lower prices before purchasing new products.
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the video game industry, declaring unconstitutional a California law restricting minors' access to violent video games. While the original sponsor sees a possibility of revisiting the issue if the court's composition changes, industry representatives and legal experts believe the decision provides strong precedent and it is unlikely and difficult to envision the issue being revisited in the near future. The decision was seen as a major victory for free speech rights in media.
- Car Toys is considering expanding into new markets but did not specify which ones. It has no current plans to open or close stores in its existing markets.
- E-commerce sales have grown double-digits each year for Car Toys and allow it to reach new customers outside its existing markets.
- Android smartphones are dominating sales at Car Toys currently, with Samsung and HTC models selling particularly well. Car Toys is also looking to enter the tablet category.
Voxx International's first aftermarket mobile DTV tuner for automotive use will be delayed from its planned May launch until at least September due to chipset delays from supplier Mobile Content Venture. The tuner may not launch until December. Voxx CEO Patrick Lavelle remains optimistic that mobile DTV tuners could generate $30 million annually for Voxx once available. Voxx is also incorporating Roku's streaming technology into an over-the-air antenna launching in the third or fourth quarter, allowing both live broadcast TV and access to hundreds of streaming channels.
- Guzu, an electronics recycling company, is focused on growth over profitability for now. It plans to launch an enhanced website with more product categories and move to a larger facility.
- The CEO said iPhones are currently the most popular items and they offer $80-200 for used ones. Guzu aims to process more consumer orders daily and expand its recycling services nationally within a few years.
Amazon launches new streaming device called Fire TV for $99 that supports streaming video and games. While initial analyst reaction was mixed, several game publishers expressed strong support and said they will provide game titles compatible with Fire TV. Amazon is also offering a dedicated game controller for $39.99 to enhance the gaming experience on Fire TV.
ESPN executive Chuck Pagano says that videogames will be a major driver of 3D TV adoption, as gamers buy 3D TVs to use with game consoles like the PS3. He and Anthony Bailey believe that the need to wear 3D glasses will not deter consumers from buying 3D TVs. DirecTV plans to launch three dedicated 3D channels in June, including one for live sports and concerts, one for movies and documentaries, and one for video-on-demand content like the 2010 MLB All-Star Game in 3D.
Several consumer electronics companies, including RadioShack, Sonos and Microsoft, ran TV ads during the Super Bowl, reminding viewers that CE is about both content and hardware. An analyst said the ads help show that hardware is still important to the CE industry and can help RadioShack update its image. RadioShack's ad featured 1980s celebrities and was meant to position the company as reinvented and focused on today's technology needs.
Wicked Pictures president Steve Orenstein says the company has no plans to produce 3D porn titles as 3D has not gained significant traction in the porn market. He notes several challenges with the 3D format for porn, including whether viewers want to wear glasses for porn viewing and added production costs. Orenstein also says Blu-ray never took off for the porn industry, with Wicked releasing only about 15 Blu-ray titles, and that DVD continues to account for around 50% of Wicked's revenue despite an overall decline in the DVD market.
Human: Thank you for the summary. Can you summarize the following document in 3 sentences or less while maintaining the key details?
[DOCUMENT]:
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2. 2—CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DAILY THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014
"have its case sort of heard" during the same proceeding because it will be affected by the outcome in the
Aereo case, he said. If that request is turned down, FilmOn X may file an amicus brief "in support of Fil-
mOn's position" in the case and the technology at issue, he said. That brief "would not explicitly support
Aereo," he said. FilmOn X's "position on copyright is different" than Aereo's, "and in fact our technology
is considerably more evolved in how it deals with access to our antenna arrays, therefore we expect the
Court to treat us separately," CEO David said by email Wednesday.
FilmOn X sees the dispute with broadcasters as more than just interpreting one sentence in the
Transmit Clause of the Copyright Act, as panelists at the meeting had suggested, David said in the Skype
transmission Tuesday. "Broadcasters get their license to be broadcasters and to have the spectrum that
they have on the basis that they offer a free public service," he said. "The facts have been obscured" by
the broadcasters, he said.
Some judges also seem to "already have their minds made up" about new technologies like FilmOn
X’s and Aereo’s "before going into the courtroom," David said, singling out comments made by 2nd Cir-
cuit Judge Denny Chin in his dissenting opinion in the Aereo case. FilmOn X’s technology is "legal" and
"not a loophole" to the Transmit Clause, he said. David is open to sitting down to talk with broadcasters
about negotiating a fair licensing deal, but will accept "only what is fair," he said. "You can not steal
something that is given away for free," and it is "absolutely necessary that free-to-air television is made
available" to all consumers, he said.
FilmOn X and Aereo "probably serve different customers" because FilmOn X customers tend
to be males 18-40 years old, while the average age of the network TV audience is "50-plus," said
David. FilmOn X will be "rolling out a new technology within the next week" that he said "sits on
top" of its "micro antenna technology which will give independent broadcasters a whole new world of
distribution" globally "based on what we’re doing," he said. More details will be revealed in a coming
announcement, he said.
Panelists at the meeting debating the battle for over-the-air TV retransmissions expressed some
surprise that the Supreme Court granted cert on broadcasters' appeal of their case seeking a preliminary
injunction against Aereo (CED Jan 13 p1). But "there are big implications" in the case, said Barry Wer-
bin, a partner at New York law firm Herrick, Feinstein, who specializes in intellectual property and Inter-
net issues.
It was also "pretty unusual" that Aereo filed a brief that was essentially in favor of the broadcast-
ers’ petition to the Supreme Court, said Werbin. But clearly Aereo wanted to put an end to the long court
battle with broadcasters and "have some finality one way or another," despite the "risk," he said. Though
the broadcasters’ petition asked the court to overturn a 2nd Circuit decision that was in Aereo’s favor, Ae-
reo had also asked for cert to be granted, and Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia said he welcomed the chance to
bring the case before the justices.
The Aereo and FilmOn X cases "really boil down to trying to decipher Congress’s intent behind
really very few words" that were used in the Transmit Clause, said Werbin. He asked panelists whether
Congress may have "missed the boat" when it enacted the amended 1976 Copyright Act or if Congress
just didn’t have the "possible foresight to see where" we would be today with technology and the Internet.
"I don’t think it’s fair to say" that Congress "missed the boat," said Matthew Schruers, vice
president-law and policy at the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), whose
3. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DAILY—3
membership includes Aereo. "Clearly Congress intended a broad construction of technologies to be
covered," but it "didn’t really anticipate what the words it was using were going to mean," he said.
Most of the Copyright Act was written in the 1960s, when the word "perform" had a "very different
meaning" than it does now with the widespread use of cloud-related services, he said. Congress
"really didn’t appreciate" in 1976 "what it would mean that we could perform works privately" via the
use of online services, he said. The Aereo court battle "isn’t really a case about Aereo; it’s a case
about what it means to perform something," he said. If playing content via a DVR does not represent
a performance to the public, "then adding an antenna onto that DVR does not make what was previ-
ously a private performance now a public performance," he said. CCIA filed an amicus brief on Ae-
reo’s behalf in the company’s battle against broadcasters.
Despite what seems to be "relatively straightforward language, we have a pretty huge variety of
opinions" on what the Transmit Clause covers, said Howard Homonoff, managing director of Homonoff
Media Group. "It really does depend so much on where you sit" in how one views the Aereo dispute, he
said. What seems to be the big difference between Cablevision, Aereo and FilmOn X is the notion of Ca-
blevision "operating subject to a license," he said. In the 2008 Cablevision decision, the 2nd Circuit ruled
individual digital recordings of broadcast content were private rather than public performances, and there-
fore not subject to copyright law.
If Cablevision didn’t have a license, the 2nd Circuit "would not have decided the same way" in that
case, said Mary Ann Zimmer, a New York attorney who has represented broadcasters in court disputes.
The Cablevision decision clearly recognized that Cablevision’s "license," even if that concept was just
"implicit," was a key issue because the word "subscribers," not "viewers," was used in that decision to de-
scribe people accessing the content, she said. Disagreeing with the other panelists, she said Congress
"clearly ... had a definitional framework for what performance meant and a definitional framework for
what transmission meant, and if it was the same thing they would have said so."
The Supreme Court will be ruling on a "very narrow issue" in the Aereo case, said Zimmer. The
broadcasters, in their petition for cert, are seeking only a determination that the 2nd Circuit "erred" in its
interpretation of the Transmit Clause, she said. The broadcasters didn’t ask the court to overturn Cablevi-
sion or interpret how the Transmit Clause applies to remote storage DVRs, she said. But "theoretically"
the Supreme Court could opt to overturn Cablevision, she said.
It’s "very unlikely" that Congress will take up these issues anytime soon, regardless of how the Su-
preme Court decides in the Aereo case, said Homonoff. "They couldn’t do anything about gun control
after Newtown, so the notion that they’re going to step in and fix" the Supreme Court decision on Aereo,
"either way," is unlikely, he said.
The ultimate goal should be to create a "system where the creator is incentivized, in whatever the
medium may be, to create" works of art and "make them available" in the "stream of commerce without
fear that you will then not be able to do it again or that you will not realize the benefits" of it, said Homon-
off. "That, to me, is the starting point" for creating a policy that is in the public’s interest, he said.
Zimmer agreed.
"One of the big public policy issues" inherent in the Aereo case and the "entire battle over retrans-
mission consent" is also whether broadcasters are "misusing" the spectrum when they deny the public cer-
tain TV stations, said Homonoff. He pointed to the battles in recent years between networks and TV sta-
tions, including CBS versus Time Warner Cable, that resulted in many cable subscribers not getting access
4. 4—CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DAILY THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014
to some stations. "On the other hand," Congress granted broadcasters the right of retransmission consent
as a provision of the 1992 U.S. Cable Television Protection and Competition Act, he said.
Panelists also pointed to broadcasters’ fears about the growing number of cord-cutters. Each
year the number of students who don’t subscribe to cable TV is growing, said Schruers. "Sports is the
only thing that’s really keeping people" subscribers now, he said. But there’s still a "huge amount of
consumption" of linear TV content, said Homonoff, pointing to the huge viewership of the Grammy
Awards on Sunday night. Although many young people aren’t watching TV traditionally anymore,
many of them are still viewing that content on alternative devices, he said, pointing to the many young
people who are using their parents’ subscription passwords to access HBO Go. Zimmer predicted that
many of the young people without cable TV subscriptions today will get one when they start making
more money. — Jeff Berman
CGB Made 'Close Call'
E-Readers Get Year's Reprieve on Accessibility, FCC Says in Approving Waiver
The FCC said e-readers need not include accessibility features for the disabled for advanced
communications services (ACS) because the devices are primarily designed for reading text-based digi-
tal titles and not for ACS. Giving an OK to a waiver sought last year by Amazon, Kobo and Sony, the
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau granted an exemption from 21st Century Communications
and Video Accessibility Act rules for a year, but not the indefinite period the companies sought (CED
Oct 15 p1). That time frame comported with the fears of groups representing those with vision impair-
ments, said one such advocate.
Some who are blind or have other vision problems would like to use e-readers to read texts aloud,
much like some earlier versions of Amazon's Kindle allowed, said American Council of the Blind Direc-
tor-External Relations and Policy Eric Bridges in an interview Wednesday. The waiver is a cost advan-
tage to e-readers over tablets, which research firm Yankee Group forecast will sell in the U.S. for an aver-
age of $105 this year versus $256 for tablets, said analyst Carl Howe, Yankee vice president. "Books tend
to be one of the things that you’d like to have very accessible, and the fact that they’re not requiring them
to include accessible features for Web access may create a somewhat unlevel playing field with those tab-
let makers that have to include" such features, Howe said. Amazon, Kobo and Sony had no comment.
5. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DAILY—5
It was a "close call" for CGB to make in weighing the goal of accessibility over the product
limitations of e-readers, said the bureau twice in an order released Tuesday (http://fcc.us/1ffjIPs).
That was the day the bureau had to act, after giving itself six more months as the partial government
shutdown occurred during the deadline that e-readers used for ACS were to be accessible to the dis-
abled (CED Oct 24 p20). A close call was "the competing public interests at stake" for those with dis-
abilities to use basic e-readers versus the industry's "interest in preserving a unique product," said the
order signed by acting bureau Chief Kris Monteith. Another hard decision was whether "availability
of social media apps" on the devices is a primary or co-primary function "capable of providing two-
way interactive ACS between individuals, such as chat functions that are covered by Section 716" of
the 2010 law, said the order. ACS "serves an incidental purpose on these devices," the primary pur-
pose of which is reading, it said.
The waiver is for a year, as advocates persuaded the bureau that's akin to the product development
life cycle as opposed to the two years the companies cited, said the order. "A lengthy or permanent
waiver might negatively impact consumers with disabilities in the future with respect to their ability to ac-
cess ACS." The bureau said it's "very sensitive" to advocates' concerns and it understands "the need to
provide access to text-based digital works, recognize[s] the importance to the community of people with
disabilities of being able to access text in an audio format, and acknowledge[s] that some ACS is also text
based." Rapid changes in e-reader and ACS technology and the "expanding importance" of ACS to all
consumers argue against a permanent waiver, said the bureau. "While important technologic break-
throughs may require several years of development, the smaller incremental improvements seen in most
product releases do not appear to take that long."
The basic e-readers covered by the waiver are mobile devices designed primarily for reading text-
based digital works like books and periodicals, said the bureau. It said the devices must have no LCD
screen or camera and not be offered or shipped to consumers with built-in ACS. "Using a browser to post
information to a social media website (e.g., Facebook), look up information on the web, access Wi-Fi, or
purchase or download an e-book is not evidence of ACS; nor does it support a finding that ACS is a pri-
mary or co-primary purpose of these devices," said the decision. "We must look to whether the browser is
designed, marketed, and used for ACS, such as electronic messaging services, in order to determine
whether basic e-readers have ACS as one of their primary or co-primary purposes."
Some of ACB's approximately 20,000 members use e-readers rather than more expensive "assistive
technology" and tablets, smartphones and other advanced and expensive devices from companies like Ap-
ple, said Bridges. "The challenge is they are expensive," and that can be a hardship for those who are
older versus buying an e-reader, he said. "The technology that is utilized or that could be utilized to make
those $75 or $80 devices accessible is simply not that expensive anymore." Bridges and allies thought
there might be a waiver for a limited period of time, rather than none whatsoever as those groups sought,
"simply because it is a pretty narrow class," he said. "You’re never happy when something is extended,"
he said of the order extending the 180-day reprieve e-readers got from the FCC in October. Other groups
opposed to the waiver had no comment.
E-readers hit their peak in U.S. sales at 8.6 million devices in 2012, and Yankee expects this year
will see more people than any other year own one, at 20.1 million, versus an installed base of 132 million
in 2014 for tablets, said Howe. Tablets, sales of which in this country are projected to rise 25 percent to
74.8 million this year from last, will continue to grow but by increasingly smaller portions, said the ana-
lyst. "They’re not growing as fast as they used to be." E-readers will "continue to exist, but it will be a
smaller part of the market — this is a cannibalization business" by tablets, said Howe. "And to a much
6. 6—CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DAILY THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014
lesser extent, by smartphones." There will remain some e-reader users "who don’t want to transition, they
don’t want a tablet, they want an e-reader," he said.
"Somebody has lobbied pretty well to say that they don’t want to have to provide Web services" on
e-readers, Howe said of the waiver. "In many cases, there aren’t good Web browsers on these devices,
because at the end of the day they’re not designed to be Web devices." Worldwide tablet shipments grew
28 percent in Q4 to 76.9 million units from the year-ago quarter, said preliminary data from International
Data Corp. released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/LaKc9Y). "While the market's growth rates remain impres-
sive, they're down dramatically compared to the year-over-year rates of the same quarter one year ago
(87.1 percent) and indicate a significant slowing of the overall market." Ranked in order of Q4 shipments
of tablets, leaders are Apple, Samsung and Amazon, said IDC. — Jonathan Make
Apple Revenue Share Down
Cirrus Eyes Voice Technology for Growth, Amid 29 Percent Revenue Drop
Fiscal Q3 2014 revenue at Cirrus Logic fell 29 percent on changes in pricing structure and a shift
in mix to products with lower selling prices, the company said in a shareholder letter issued Tuesday
ahead of its earning call. Cirrus’s largest customer, Apple, was about 84 percent of Cirrus’s total net sales
for Q3 of fiscal year 2014 and 91 percent for 2013, and 81 percent of the company’s total sales for the first
nine months of fiscal years 2014 and 82 percent for 2013, Cirrus said in a 10-Q filing.
Cirrus, which bought Acoustic Technologies in December, believes voice is the next catalyst to
fuel growth in portable audio as a key interface for mobile devices through voice capture, automatic
speech recognition enhancement and far field multi-microphone technology, it said. Low-power compo-
nents enable products to be always on and ready to respond to commands, the company said. The market
is in early stages but Cirrus expects to be a key player due to its signal processing expertise, engineering
and portfolio of low-power components, it said.
Cirrus plans to introduce new voice processing products this quarter for the “broader mobile mar-
ket,” combining Cirrus’s components with Acoustic’s noise reduction, echo cancellation and voice en-
hancement software, it said. According to CEO Jason Rhode, Cirrus’s voice-based technologies will ma-
ture first in smartphones but then potentially have “lots of legs” in other form factors, including automo-
tive and devices within the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things means different things to different
people, he said, but to Cirrus it means “voice interface to your devices,” he said. The company expects to
optimize products for that application going forward.
In the nascent LED lighting market, part of Cirrus’s energy segment, Rhode expects a “significant
growth market” in LED lighting, but so far the market is “a lot more fragmented than we expected.”
Manufacturers have launched a number of SKUs as they try out different approaches, he said. “I don't
think anybody has really hit a home run” on what LED light bulbs should look like, he said.
Developments over the past year show that certain LED form factors “are a lot more discriminat-
ing” in dimming compatibility than others, Rhode said. “Everybody gets excited about whatever the lat-
est, cheapest A19 form factor bulb is,” he said, but in North America those are the “least likely lamps to
be connected to dimmers,” he said. MR16 and PAR lights used in ceiling applications are much likely to
be on a set of dimmers “and therefore put a lot more value on dimmer compatibility,” he said.
7. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DAILY—7
Cirrus plans to work on more programmable, more customizable LED drivers “so one piece of sili-
con can target a wide variety of platforms and do so at a very, very low bill of materials cost basis,” he
said. Its strategy is to compete with solutions “where there’s literally no IC involved,” he said. In that
scenario the user experience “is improved significantly” while the product is simplified for Cirrus’s cus-
tomers, he said. LED lighting is “an interesting market,” but it’s “always a bumpy road when you enter a
new market with new technology. We’re slugging through it,” he said.
Net sales for the quarter ended Dec. 28 were $219 million versus $310 million in the year-ago
quarter, while net income fell to $42 million from $68 million. For the March quarter, Cirrus forecasts
revenue of $130 million to $150 million, it said, with gross margin between 47 and 49 percent. Shares
closed 8 percent lower Wednesday at $17.28. — Rebecca Day
'Foot in the Door'
TiVo's Digitalsmiths Buy Could Give It Access to Tier One Pay TV Operators
TiVo's acquisition of cloud-based services supplier Digitalsmiths potentially gives the DVR devel-
oper access to some tier one pay-TV operators that had eluded it, industry observers said. TiVo will pay
$135 million cash for Digitalsmiths, whose customer roster includes seven large U.S. pay TV providers,
including DirecTV, Dish Network and Time Warner Cable, said Stephens Inc. analyst Tim Quillin. Time
Warner agreed to build Digitalsmiths' Seamless Discovery video recommendations technology into its
user interface. The Seamless technology allows users to find and view content across TVs, smartphones,
tablets and PCs.
"TiVo gets a foot in the door with tier one pay-TV operators who are not candidates to adopt the
entire TiVo user interface, but might be interested in a la carte offerings from Digitalsmiths/TiVo," Quillin
said in a research note.
The purchase will strengthen TiVo's hand as it moves to expand into cloud services and moves
core set-top DVR functionality such as search and recommendation to the cloud, Quillin said. TiVo last
week confirmed reports it had laid off five hardware engineers, but was keeping two to support its current
DVRs. A TiVo spokesman denied the company was getting out of the hardware business, saying that
with the introduction of its Roamio DVRs last year, TiVo expected to "deliver on that for years to come."
TiVo is expected to upgrade its Premiere DVRs with Roamio software in February (CED Dec 13 p4). But
TiVo also demonstrated network DVRs with a TiVo Cloud service at CES earlier this month. It has been
deployed in Swedish cable operator Con Hem's cloud-based service. The buy of Digitalsmiths will enable
to TiVo to deploy cloud-based services with operators either independently or with the TiVo interface,
TiVo said.
Digitalsmiths made its mark with VideoSense technology that enabled searching video by actor,
line of dialog, location, genre or product. Among the companies that have deployed VideoSense or Seam-
less Discovery are the CW Network, Foxtel, Paramount Pictures, Roku, Sharp, Sony PlayStation, Turner
Sports and Warner Bros. Digitalsmiths unveiled Seamless Discovery at the 2011 CES as a means for
making programming recommendations to users based on past viewing habits and directing them to where
the content could be found, whether it was video-on-demand, broadcast or cable. Digitalsmiths, which has
61 employees, including 49 in Durham, N.C., will remain based in North Carolina and CEO Ben
8. 8—CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DAILY THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014
Weinberger and Chief Operating Officer Matt Perry will continue with the company, TiVo said. It also
has an office in Denver. Privately held Digitalsmiths has annual sales of about $10 million, Quillin said.
Digitalsmiths' cloud-based service handled 90 million transactions in July, increasing to 150 million by
December, Digitalsmiths said.
Digitalsmiths raised $12.5 million in 2011, in a financing round that included investments from
Cisco, Technicolor and Capitol Broadcasting. Whether those three companies will get stakes in TiVo or
still had investments in Digitalsmiths couldn't be determined. Cisco, Capitol Broadcasting, Technicolor
and TiVo didn't comment. Digitalsmiths has raised about $30 million since its founding. It also wasn't
clear where Digitalsmiths would be integrated into TiVo, which has hardware, services and audience
measurement businesses.
“Digitalsmiths contributes expertise, data opportunities, and approaches that complement and ex-
tend TiVo's extensive work in advanced television to customers seeking search, recommendations, and
portability,” TiVo CEO Tom Rogers said in a statement.
Meanwhile, TiVo increased its stock repurchase authorization by $100 million and said it will buy
$100 million of stock in Q1 of fiscal 2015. The new authorization gives TiVo $186 million to repurchase
stock. TiVo should have $800 million in net cash after the stock buyback and Digitalsmiths acquisition,
Quillin said. — Mark Seavy
Strong Next-Gen Tie Ratios
EA Says It Had 40 Percent U.S. Share on PS4 Games Last Month
Electronic Arts EA achieved a 40 percent market share on its games for the PS4 in the U.S. last
month and a 30 percent share on the Xbox One, CEO Andrew Wilson said on an earnings call Tuesday,
citing NPD data. Estimates also indicated that EA gained similar shares in Europe, he said. "On average,
every gamer in Europe that bought a next-gen console is playing one of EA’s next-gen games," he said.
EA was the top publisher on next-generation consoles in December and it has a "robust pipeline in front of
us" as the Xbox One and PS4 "player bases continue to grow," he said.
The six titles that EA released for the PS4 and Xbox One — FIFA 14, Battlefield 4, Madden NFL
25, Need for Speed Rivals, NBA Live 14 and Peggle 2 — "collectively sold above expectations and ex-
ceeded" EA’s Q3 forecast, said Wilson. EA’s Xbox One and PS4 software sales were "led by" FIFA 14,
Need for Speed Rivals and Battlefield 4, said Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen.
Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore is also "pretty bullish" on the software-to-hardware tie ratios
on the new consoles, he said. "Certainly, Sony has done well" with the PS4 "when you compare it to the
first two months of their launch" on the PS3, he said. Sony’s tie ratio grew to 2.1 for every console sold
from 1.9 on the PS3, he said. Microsoft’s tie ratio was down a little at 2.6 games per console on the Xbox
One compared to the Xbox 360, he said. "But I think a lot of that is to do with some of the bundling activ-
ity we saw on a global basis," he said. "Here in the U.S., I think, it’s been a solid start for both" consoles
and EA is "incredibly bullish that that will continue" next fiscal year, he said.
Strong demand for EA’s PS4 and Xbox One games helped its results in Q3 ended Dec. 31, but not
enough to offset weakness of its packaged games for the older game systems, it said (CED Jan 29 p11).
9. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DAILY—9
EA’s loss widened to $308 million, or $1 a share, from $45 million, or 15 cents a share. Total Q3 revenue
tumbled to $808 million from $922 million a year ago.
Industry sales of major games for the PS3 and Xbox 360 declined in Q3 at a "faster-than-
anticipated rate, and that softness was the primary" reason for EA’s Q3 revenue "shortfall," Wilson said
on the call.
Despite strong sales, shortly after Battlefield 4 went live, EA started hearing from some players
who were "experiencing issues" with the game, said Wilson. The Battlefield team "acted swiftly to ad-
dress the issues through game updates, and they continue to make refinements as part of our live service to
ensure a great game experience" for players, he said. EA was "confident that gamers will be playing" it
"for a long time to come," he said. The game, which EA released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in addition to
the PS4 and Xbox One, was not immune from the decline in sales of games for the older systems, said
Moore. Any shortfall that EA saw in Battlefield 4 sales was related to that and not, "we believe, any is-
sues with the game itself," he said. The game has a "long tail" and EA "will continue to be able to sell this
effectively throughout" the next fiscal year, he said. Sony and Microsoft will continue to support the PS3
and Xbox 360 "at least for the next two years and bring this to a 10-year cycle as we saw in the previous
cycle," he predicted.
EA has "largely addressed the issues" that players had with Battlefield 4, BMO Capital Markets
analyst Edward Williams said Wednesday. "Based on sell-through trends, it doesn’t appear to us as
though there has been a material negative impact on the strength" of that game series created by those is-
sues, he said. "The challenge going forward, however, will be how to harness lessons learned so that these
issues do not recur in future games," he said.
December was EA’s biggest month ever for mobile downloads, with more than 71 million game
downloads across the App Store and Google Play, the most of any game publisher globally, said Wilson.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out reached a record level of daily active users in the holiday quarter, he said.
Those "milestones demonstrate how mobile continues to be a fantastic opportunity for EA’s expansion
and revenue growth," he said.
EA’s mobile business generated $125 million in Q3, said Jorgensen. That was up 26 percent over
the prior year and 19 percent over Q2 this year, he said. Smartphones and tablets continue to represent a
majority of that revenue, accounting for $110 million of the $125 million total and growing 39 percent
year-over-year, he said.
Full game downloads added $113 million of revenue to EA’s Q3 result, said Jorgensen. That was
up 157 percent from Q3 last year, mainly fueled by the release of Battlefield 4 on the PC in the quarter, he
said. Subscriptions, ads and other digital revenue totaled $66 million in Q3, down 16 percent from Q3 last
year due to a decrease in Pogo subscription and ad revenue, and a decline in Star Wars: The Old Republic
subscription revenue as EA’s free-to-play offering "continues to grow," he said.
EA will release two titles in Q4, down from five core titles in Q4 last year, said Jorgensen. It will,
for example, release Titanfall March 11 for the Xbox One and Xbox 360. EA will share more of its 2015
game release slate on its next quarterly call, it said.
"Contrary to some reports," EA still has several years left on its Madden NFL game deal, said
Wilson. EA is "in planning on the next Madden property right now and we expect to make a num-
10. 10—CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DAILY THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014
ber of Madden games in the future," he said. EA shares closed 1.4 percent higher Wednesday at
$25.23. — Jeff Berman
Broadband
JetBlue Airways is weighing "strategic options" for its LiveTV in-flight entertainment sub-
sidiary as it seeks to increase deployments of the service, Chief Financial Officer Mark Powers said
Wednesday on an earnings call. Powers didn't disclose the options being considered, but analysts have
speculated that they could include a spin-off of LiveTV. In addition to providing satellite TV, radio
and movies, LiveTV is deploying ViaSat's Ka-band broadband service with JetBlue, which sells it un-
der the Fly-Fi brand and has installed it on 10 Airbus A320-232 airplanes since December, JetBlue
CEO David Barger said. JetBlue will retrofit about 15 A-320 planes per month this year with the ser-
vice, he said. JetBlue will add Fly-Fi to its Embraer E-190 jets in 2015, Barger said. Fly-Fi's basic
Simply Surf service is free through June, with a Fly-Fi Plus high-bandwidth plan for streaming movies
and large downloads available for $9 per hour, JetBlue said. "Connectivity is such an important prod-
uct for us," Powers said. "In-flight entertainment and broadband are core to the JetBlue brand, but you
don't need to actually own the company to retain that core asset. So we will continue to look at strate-
gic options that are in the best interests for, amongst others, our shareholders." LiveTV was purchased
by JetBlue in 2002 and has its headquarters in Melbourne, Fla. JetBlue last weighed options for Li-
veTV in 2012, but postponed a decision amid a debate over Ku- and Ka-band satellite services, an is-
sue that was resolved with the launching of ViaSat's Ka-band offering. In addition to JetBlue, Li-
veTV's other customers include Azul Brazilian Airlines, Frontier Airlines, WestJet, United Airlines
and Virgin Australia. LiveTV also is outfitting United Airlines planes with the ViaSat service.
DirecTV provides the satellite television service for LiveTV in the U.S., while Bell TV is the supplier
in Canada. In addition to LiveTV, other in-flight entertainment suppliers include Panasonic Avionics
Corp., Rockwell Collins and Thales Group.
Trends
Worldwide tablet shipments of 76.9 million units grew 28 percent year-over-year in Q4, indi-
cating a “significant slowing” of the overall market following 87 percent year-over-year growth a year
ago, said a report from IDC. Total 2013 shipments were 217.1 million units, according to preliminary
findings, up from 144.2 million in 2012, IDC said. Early adopter markets such as the U.S. are
“reaching high levels of consumer satisfaction,” while “strong growth” in emerging markets hasn’t
been enough to sustain the growth rates of years past, said Tom Mainelli, IDC research director-
tablets. Commercial tablet purchases are expected to accelerate in mature markets, but softness in the
consumer segment due to high penetration and increased competition for consumer dollars points to “a
more challenging environment for tablets in 2014 and beyond,” Mainelli said. Apple continued to
lead the market with 26 million units shipped in Q4, up from 22.9 million the year-ago quarter, IDC
said, but its 13.5 percent year-over-year growth was “well below” the industry average, IDC said. The
numbers highlight the challenges Apple faces as it attempts to grow its tablet business in markets out-
side of its “traditional mature-market strongholds” and as it comes up against more competition from
a range of competitors, Mainelli said. Apple’s worldwide tablet share grew sequentially in Q4 to 33.8
percent from 29.7 in Q3, but it was down from the 38.2 percent share in Q4 2012. No. 2 Samsung re-
tained its position on the strength of its portfolio and increased carrier support to reach 18.8 percent