A plan to track school children using RFID tags is being challenged by civil liberties and privacy advocates. The ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) are gearing up campaigns against Brittan Elementary School Dist. in Sutter, Cal. As part of a test, the school recently issued its students RFID badges to check attendance.
Those that oppose CEA’s petition seeking clarification or reconsideration of V-chip rules for DTV have “completely mischaracterized” the nature of that petition, CEA told the Commission in reply comments. Contrary to statements by the Coalition for Independent Ratings Services that the CE industry wanted to undermine the flexibility in ratings systems the FCC seeks, CEA said its only aim was “to implement this flexibility while maintaining some semblance of usability.” CEA said its request to have the Commission specify the rating region code that activates V-chip operation has been confused by those who believe that CEA’s request would somehow limit the ratings systems that can be transmitted in the rating region table. “Specifying rating region codes in advance has always been the intended approach in the PSIP system” of DTV, CEA said. “Doing so allows the receiver to pull the correct rating information simply by knowing in what region the receiver is operating,” it said. It said DTVs that are compliant with the proposed rules in the U.S. will process 2 ratings codes -- one “locked” to existing V-chip specifications, the other “being completely flexible to process whatever rating region table is delivered in the transport stream.” As for the licensing of V-chip by patent holder Tri-Vision, CEA urged the FCC to accept Tri-Vision’s stated offer to “do whatever is necessary” to assure that license terms are fair and reasonable. TiVo, in separate comments supporting CEA’s petition, urged the FCC to go a step further in assuring that Tri-Vision doesn’t gain a patent windfall at the expense of consumers. It urged the Commission to confirm “that so long as a DTV product is able to process new ratings systems, it need not utilize the same technology or processes protected by the Tri-Vision patents.” TiVo said it believes it can design its own devices capable of accommodating any new ratings systems “that would render licensing of the Tri-Vision patents unnecessary.” It also urged that the FCC protect those companies that have no choice but to license the Tri-Vision patents. “If the Commission endorses a rule where only Tri-Vision legally can produce or license the right to produce compliant devices, the Commission has a special responsibility to ensure that all regulated entities have access to the license on roughly the same terms,” TiVo said.
By seeking reconsideration of the FCC order on a V- chip and parental ratings system for DTV, CEA is trying to diminish what the Commission has done “to provide protections and media access tools for parents, children and educators in the U.S.,” said consultant and columnist Richard Kahlenberg. In opposing the CEA petition, Kahlenberg said that for 15 years he has published weekly TV viewing recommendations in the L.A. Times and other major newspapers for parents of elementary, middle and high school age. He said he also served as the administrative dir. of the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film & TV Studies. He said the CEA petition “seems intent on introducing a very serious constraint on the technology available to broadcasters to meet their obligations to children and families.” The CE industry “is spending considerable resources to provide consumers in America with increased quality in the sound and picture, portability and storage of television content,” Kahlenberg said. CEA “should be asked to balance its charge that V-chip is a burdensome cost to the American consumer with parallel statistics about how much the marketing campaigns of the electronics firms add to the cost of a digital television,” he said. “Those figures would dwarf any sum devoted to providing the parental-choice features” provided for in the Commission’s order, he said. CEA had asked the Commission to probe the licensing practices of Canadian V-chip patent holder Tri- Vision because the company stood to gain a potential profit “windfall” that U.S. consumers would have to bear. Kahlenberg said he couldn’t understand why CEA would “single out” Tri-Vision as a particular company that might profit from the DTV transition when “many companies in the CEA’s large membership stand to profit.” Kahlenberg said he owns no shares in Tri-Vision or any other CEA member company.
The U.S. Dist. Court, San Diego, issued an order blocking Maxim Integrated Products from any “current and future acts” that misappropriate Qualcomm trade secrets. But the court refused to order Maxim to stop selling 2 lines of chips that are used in CDMA handsets. The court found that while Maxim “has shown a course of past conduct… that is predatory, wrongful and in violation of the laws of the State of Cal.” Qualcomm has yet to demonstrate “past misappropriation has resulted in irreparable injury.” A trial slated to begin in June will decide whether 2 Maxim phone chip lines infringe on 4 Qualcomm patents.
Despite Cablevision’s recent decision to weigh “strategic options” for its Rainbow DBS venture, its Voom HD satellite service is plowing ahead. Voom has taken bids for 2nd-generation receivers and launched a regional promotional strategy targeting 12 markets.
Digital entertainment centers sales will be triple those of PCs by 2007 or 2008, predicted Creative Strategies Pres. Tim Bejarin during a supersession at the CES show here Fri. The new centers will combine the video and audio output of the Internet, multichannel, broadcast, DVDs and PVRs and most other transmission means, and display it on any device. About a dozen versions were displayed on the convention floor. But the key to satisfied consumers is interoperability of devices, said Philips Semiconductor CEO Frans Van Houten, because “no one product will win” the battle for the living room. The Digital Living Network Alliance will set up an interoperability certification program to help solve that problem, said Pat Griffis of Microsoft, chmn. of the alliance. On the same panel, Charter Communications CEO Carl Vogel said telcos will be “real competitors” to cable, but their chances of success may have been overstated, because cable has already made the investments in “really robust networks” for broadband that telcos still need to make.
LAS VEGAS -- EchoStar and DirecTV will ship MPEG-4- equipped satellite receivers later this year as past of a multiyear migration to a compression technology that promises to expand availability of HD channels.
Vonage said it exceeded 400,000 lines on its network, doubling its subscriber base in less than 6 months. It said it ended 2004 with more than 390,000 lines in service having added 115,000 lines in the 4th quarter alone. Vonage also announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Wed.: (1) It has teamed with UTStarcom to introduce a Wi-Fi handset, F1000, configured with Vonage’s VoIP services. It said the product will be available to Vonage subscribers during spring or summer for 802.11b networks nationwide. (2) It has extended its relationship with Texas Instruments (TI) to include TI VoIP software and semiconductors in new Vonage-compatible communications products available from Viseon and VTech Communications. The 2 new devices include a digital home telephone from Viseon and a cordless broadband telephone system from VTech and are expected to be available in 2005. (3) It has joined with VTech to develop a 5.8 GHz expandable broadband phone system configured with Vonage’s service. It said the product, configured with the TI TNETV1060 VoIP chipset, will be available at over 8,000 retail locations nationwide during spring-summer.
Media International Concepts (MEIC) is restructuring its business model to specialize in creating content for satellite radio, but critics have questioned the L.A. firm’s timing. XM and Sirius both say they're depending less and less on 3rd-party content providers as the companies grow their in-house production facilities. MEIC’s longstanding strategy has been to acquire and operate entertainment, educational programming and production companies and create synergies by exploiting traditional and emerging distribution channels, the company said. Its shift in focus, announced Mon., was prompted by management’s belief that the radio talk show market is rapidly growing and is a trend that presents them with “a giant opportunity.” MEIC officials said it wants to work with both satellite radio providers -- not compete against them -- and hopes to encourage shareholder growth by “cornering a sizable piece of this huge and growing market.” XM currently has 68 commercial-free music channels, virtually all of which are generated in- house, a spokesman said. Third-party provider Worldspace chips in African music and world music channels and Salem Communications stocks a Christian rock channel. On the news and talk radio side, XM depends on 3rd parties like Fox, CNN, MSNBC and Public Radio International to provide content, but the company’s own public radio channel is evolving, officials said. “As we get bigger we'll look at strategic opportunities to work with 3rd parties, but we do believe there is a big advantage in doing it ourselves,” an XM spokesman said. A Sirius official agreed. Sirius, which as little as 18 months ago was relying on outside outfits for almost all of its talk radio content, is “trending away from third parties,” the company said. All of Sirius’ 65 music channels are produced in-house, and all but 12 of the company’s 56 non- music are currently outsourced to “big, branded companies” like NBC, ESPN, National Public Radio and Discovery, the company said. Developing content in-house benefits XM and Sirius since they can retain creative control, quality control and timing of when a show or segment is introduced, they said. MEIC CEO Michael Marcovsky, a cable and cellular communications vet, is ex-chmn. of Nostalgia Network and former pres. of Olympic Entertainment Group.
XM is “the big dog” of satellite radio, CEO Hugh Panero told a CES news conference Wed. in a slap at rival Sirius. XM has 3,275,000 subscribers and in 2004 doubled its edge over Sirius to 2 million from one million a year earlier, Panero said. XM added 700,000 new subscribers 4th quarter, a 66% improvement from a year earlier, he said. The company enjoyed its largest single day of subscriber activations with over 50,000 on Christmas, he said. At CES, Panero said Pioneer would introduced an XM2Go portable this year. The company also introduced a “Connect & Play” chip, which when implanted by a manufacturer in any consumer audio product, such as a boombox portable, will make it instantly “XM-ready,” Panero said. The feature requires purchase of a small Connect & Play antenna that will list for $49.99. A roster of prominent audio brands already has signed on to the Connect & Play program, including Boston Acoustics, Denon, Harman Kardon, Onkyo, Polk and RCA, he said.