Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it would roll out its Xbox Live online gaming service in six new western European markets next month as it looks to extend its lead over rival Sony in the nascent sector. Online gaming is seen as an important emerging market for video game publishers and console makers looking to charge subscriptions for multi-player action -- enabling several people to play against one another over an Internet connection. On October 30, Xbox Live will make its debut in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland, bringing the number of western European markets to 14.
Microsoft and Sony Corp have led the way in online gaming, signing up over one million subscribers between them in the United States since launching in the second half of 2002. Take-up in Europe has been slower. In June, Microsoft said it signed up 50,000 European gamers to Xbox Live while Sony said last month it had signed up 25,000 European gamers since launching in June. Neither company offered an updated subscriber figure on Wednesday. Both Microsoft and Sony sell online adapter kits with Sony's carrying a UK suggested retail price of 23 pounds ($36.86) and Microsoft charging 39 pounds in the UK and 59 euros ($66.25) in Continental Europe.
News source: Reuters
Microsoft and Sony Corp have led the way in online gaming, signing up over one million subscribers between them in the United States since launching in the second half of 2002. Take-up in Europe has been slower. In June, Microsoft said it signed up 50,000 European gamers to Xbox Live while Sony said last month it had signed up 25,000 European gamers since launching in June. Neither company offered an updated subscriber figure on Wednesday. Both Microsoft and Sony sell online adapter kits with Sony's carrying a UK suggested retail price of 23 pounds ($36.86) and Microsoft charging 39 pounds in the UK and 59 euros ($66.25) in Continental Europe.
News source: Reuters
In an effort to stem the widespread copying of music over the Internet, the Recording Industry Association of America sued 261 computer users last week, and it plans to sue hundreds more. Several of those sued have expressed dismay that their Internet providers turned over information about them without their permission.
The association is the first to apply the subpoena provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 to identify people who make files available for others to copy from their personal computers using file-sharing software like KaZaA. Under the statute, copyright holders do not need a judge's signature to compel Internet service providers to turn over the names of subscribers.
The appeals court decision, expected later this fall, could have important consequences for the music industry's antipiracy campaign. Cary Sherman, president of the recording industry group, said today that using the subpoenas made it easier and less expensive for the organization to file so many lawsuits because it could consolidate the lawsuits in geographic regions under local lawyers hired for that purpose.
Verizon contends that the law was meant to apply only to material that subscribers post on Web sites that reside on computers controlled by Internet providers. The rise of peer-to-peer technology, which lets Internet users find and retrieve files on one another's computers, the company says, was not foreseen by Congress when it passed the law.
Verizon is also challenging the constitutionality of the law, arguing that if it does allow the subpoenas to be used in this way, it violates subscribers' rights to privacy and due process. Judge John D. Bates of Federal District Court in Washington ruled against the company earlier this year, forcing it to turn over the names and addresses of at least four Internet subscribers.
Sarah B. Deutsch, a vice president and lawyer for Verizon, said the company had received 200 subpoenas since then. It is complying with all of them, except for one in which a New York woman has challenged the recording industry's use of the subpoenas to identify her.
The hearing came as two Congressional committees prepare to examine the 1998 statute more closely. On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hear testimony about copyright protection and consumer privacy from lawyers for Verizon and SBC, which has filed a separate challenge to the subpoenas in federal court in San Francisco. John Rose, executive vice president of EMI, and Mr. Sherman of the recording industry trade group will also testify.
Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, has scheduled a Sept. 30 hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that will address privacy issues as well as the broader effect of technology on copyright enforcement.
And Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, introduced a bill today to protect Internet providers from the controversial subpoenas. His proposal would block subpoenas except in pending civil lawsuits or in cases where unauthorized copies were stored on Web sites.
News source: New York Times
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