News for Monday, 27 August 2007

Following the launch of Deezer, a free online music streaming website, Universal is as expected expressing its concern about its business, and immediately claimed that Deezer was illegal, despite the fact that the website signed an agreement with the state organization, named SACEM, responsible for collecting artist's rights-related financial fees linked to tracks and albums played during all public audience/performance (clubs, radio, concerts, etc.). So, while the SACEM is "defending" artists' interests independently of their individual contracts with different Music Majors, Universal claims the agreement is between Deezer and SACEM is illegal, and the major to ask its catalog to be removed from Deezer's database.
Universal is acting this way to avoid loosing control about the way it intends to distribute its catalog, and with which partners. It follows the same strategy used to kick iTunes Store out of the DRM-free trial as we reported earlier. Indeed, Deezer.com was launched couple of days after Universal and Neuf Telecom, a French ISP, announced an agreement to offer Neuf internet users an "almost free" access to Universal Music catalog. If the figures are unknown, it is official that Neuf Telecom paid Universal a substantial amount of money to obtain this agreement. So, having an ads-based online streaming service, namely Deezer.com, being ready to offer the same thing for free and legally, is simply unacceptable for the Major.
We will closely follow this story as the legal aspect will define the future of the SACEM and bring lights on how Majors can potentially bypass laws, or rules, simply to avoid recognizing their inability to adapt their business plans to the new ways consumers expect to enjoy music.

As many car manufacturers, Audi was quickly adopting the iPod as the source for audio storage in cars, and integrated a system allowing car owner to easily browse through their playlists while driving. Some examples were demonstrated during the last Apple Expo.
Quite naturally, Audi announced the future support of the iPhone, both for audio and telephone functions.

We might have the chance to try the system during the Apple Expo in Paris by the end of September as Audio might be demonstrating it during the event.

Last April, during the NAB , we were reporting about the first demonstration of the RED ONE HD camcorder.

The first production batch will be shipping by August 31st, remaining units will be available on September 7th. This camcorder should shake the HD video market thanks to its features and competitive price for a Pro device (USD17,500).

Rambus is a well-known company for computer memories, mostly for launching numerous legal actions against memory manufacturers for patent infringements; usually leading to important financial compensations, than for bringing true "revolutionizing" products. The company is even rumored to invest more in lawyers than in R&D.
But it is time for a change, and Rambus is now the target of an anti-trust action launched by the European Union on abuse of a dominant position:

The European Commission can confirm that it has sent a Statement of Objections (SO) to Rambus on 30 July 2007. The SO outlines the Commission’s preliminary view that Rambus has infringed EC Treaty rules on abuse of a dominant position (Article 82) by claiming unreasonable royalties for the use of certain patents for “Dynamic Random Access Memory” chips (DRAMS) subsequent to a so-called "patent ambush".
DRAMs have been standardised by an industry-wide US based standard setting organisation – JEDEC. Rambus owns and is asserting patents which it claims cover the technology included in these JEDEC standards. Therefore, every manufacturer wishing to produce synchronous DRAM chips or chipsets consequently must either acquire a licence from Rambus or litigate its asserted patent rights.
The SO outlines the Commission’s preliminary view that Rambus engaged in intentional deceptive conduct in the context of the standard-setting process, for example by not disclosing the existence of the patents which it later claimed were relevant to the adopted standard. This type of behaviour is known as a "patent ambush". Against this background, the Commission provisionally considers that Rambus breached the EC Treaty's rules on abuse of a dominant market position (Article 82) by subsequently claiming unreasonable royalties for the use of those relevant patents. The Commission's preliminary view is that without its "patent ambush", Rambus would not have been able to charge the royalty rates it currently does.
This is the first time that the Commission is dealing with a "patent ambush" under EC antitrust law, but the approach reflects well-established general case-law under Article 82 of the Treaty.
In parallel proceedings in the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an order in August 2006 and in February 2007 whereby it found that Rambus had engaged in illegal monopolisation and imposed a remedy applicable to US patents and foreign patents to the extent that they relate to import or export of relevant products into or from the US.

When considering how serious the EU was and is following the previous Microsoft anti-trust action, Rambus should be prepared for some major problems in Europe as it seems the EU decided to openly fight against such "patent ambush" practice, and not only for consumer electronic market.

A report from jseb:

Last night, with two members from "FrenchiPhone" forum, we have SIM-unlocked successfully an iPhone 8GB model following the step-by-step tutorial published by Georges Hotz.

The Blog is available here: http://www.frenchiphone.com
And photos from flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchiphone/sets/72157601654424606/
This is indeed an extremely challenging operation, as tracks are really thin, and to be successful you need good tools (extremely think wires, 0.2 soldering pin, and good enlarging optical device) and a bit of luck.

Waiting for a software-based unlocking procedure becomes available, this procedure is the only one available in Europe to be able to use an iPhone.
Link to the Original procedure in English