NewsScan Daily, 10 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 10 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Acacia Pressures Academia for Patent Payments
        Roxio Puts Its Money on Napster
        It's an Analog World, After All
        Companies Missing the Mark on Teen Marketing
        A Sick Trade

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Judy Chicago

ACACIA PRESSURES ACADEMIA FOR PATENT PAYMENTS
      Acacia Media Technologies, which last month suffered a setback in its 
efforts to force adult entertainment sites to make licensing payments for 
using its patented streaming video technology, has now turned its attention 
to higher education, whipping off dozens of letters to colleges claiming 
the schools' use of streaming video for purposes such as distance learning 
violates its patents. Acacia's digital media patents were acquired from 
Greenwich Information Technologies in 2001 and since then Acacia has 
secured dozens of licensing deals with companies, including Walt Disney. 
And while a handful of colleges and universities have agreed to pay up, 
most have resisted. The American Council on Education and the Electronic 
Frontier Foundation both are advising colleges not to pay, citing last 
month's legal ruling that several terms in Acacia's patents were indefinite 
-- a verdict that could knock a hole in Acacia's case for demanding 
payments from other sectors. "Honestly, I think it's a sign of 
desperation," says EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz. "Acacia knows the 
hammer is coming down on its patents, and it's going to extract as much as 
it can before the apocalypse," adding that the company's tactics were "a 
threat to the future of education… I think that's despicable. Universities 
are under enough pressure in their budgets right now to try to pay for 
everything. The last thing they need to do is give a pound of flesh to some 
tech company that doesn't even make a product." (AP 9 Aug 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040809/D84BMF500.html

ROXIO PUTS ITS MONEY ON NAPSTER
      Roxio, owner of the Napster music Web site, is selling its consumer 
software division to Sonic Solutions for $80 million and changing its name 
to Napster. The company will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker "NAPS" 
after the transaction is complete. The move reflects Roxio's plan to focus 
on the digital music market, says chairman and CEO Chris Gorog. "Napster 
will emerge as a well-positioned pure-play in the fast-growing digital 
music sector with a substantially enhanced balance sheet that will support 
our growth plans," says Gorog. (AP/Washington Post 10 Aug 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53248-2004Aug10.html

IT'S AN ANALOG WORLD, AFTER ALL
      It turns out that the digital revolution is driving up demand for 
advances in analog electronics, which enable thousands of products to 
translate reality into the 1s and 0s of binary code and back again into 
formats that humans can perceive. The trend has proven a boon for companies 
like Texas Instruments, which several years ago decided to ramp up its 
analog technology investments along with its higher-profile digital 
products. Last year, TI surpassed STMicroelectronics of France to become 
the global leader in the $26.8 billion analog chip market and it currently 
reaps 40% of its semiconductor revenue from analog products. "Most people 
think that the world has gone digital and analog is old and not hip," says 
TI senior VP Gregg Lowe. "On average, there's probably 15 analog chips 
needed for every digital processor you use." But exploiting the analog 
market is not a slam-dunk -- the market is highly fragmented, the products 
are less standardized, and the learning curve for analog specialists is 
particularly steep. "It takes six to nine months for a college graduate 
with training in digital engineering to be contributing to our products," 
says Lowe. "In analog, we have to go to a few top universities, get Ph.D.s 
and train them for four years before they can help us." (New York Times 9 
Aug 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/09/technology/09texas.html

COMPANIES MISSING THE MARK ON TEEN MARKETING
      U.S. teenagers and young adults represent a coveted demographic 
market for many businesses, but advertisers are failing to tailor their 
messages to teens' media consumption habits, says McKinsey Quarterly. 
Teenagers and young adults spend almost 17 hours a week on the Internet -- 
six times the national average -- but advertisers are still pouring most of 
their money into TV commercials. One problem is that many media firms are 
simply unimaginative, and the other is that teens' online activities -- 
e-mail, instant messaging and games -- don't support banner ads as 
effectively as surfing or shopping do. In response, some companies have 
attempted to tighten the integration of off- and online content, such as 
music and TV shows, and some are experimenting with new payment schemes, 
such as AOL's prepaid My Plastic card. "New approaches -- involving, say, 
product placement or advanced viral marketing -- will require better 
information to help media companies understand this rapidly evolving market 
and to assess the financial impact of their marketing investments 
accurately," concludes the article. (McKinsey Quarterly 2004 No. 4)
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1471&L2=17&L3=104&srid=21&gp=1

A SICK TRADE
      The phenomenon of weborexics first became apparent about three years 
ago with the emergence of so-called pro-ano, or pro-anorexia, Web sites. 
But they've taken a sinister turn, with several sites cashing in by selling 
pro-ano merchandise, including teddy bears, "ana" bracelets and tank tops 
with slogans such as "nothing eaten, nothing gained." Pro-anos are one of 
the more disturbing online communities because of their promotion of 
anorexia as a lifestyle choice and badge of honor. The Web sites typically 
contain a weight-loss weblog, a how-to guide with tips on starving and 
purging, and "trigger pictures" of thin celebrities. Many of the homepages 
and forums have been disabled but a plethora of sites can still be easily 
found. Anorexics can now go online and for between $3 and $25 buy a 
red-beaded "ana" bracelet -- a symbol of solidarity that identifies them to 
the rest of the community. The bracelets are designed to help anorexics 
resist their hunger by being worn on the hand used to eat with. (The Age 7 
Aug 2004) rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/06/1091732078038.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities." (Stephen 
Sondheim, in his musical "Sunday in the Park with George," whose 
protagonist is the artist Georges Seurat)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JUDY CHICAGO
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the artist and writer Judy Chicago (b. 
1939), who founded the first women's art program in the United States at 
California's Fresno State College in 1970. Later, in 1974, she helped 
establish the Feminist Studio Workshop in Los Angeles.
      Judy Chicago is best known for her room-size sculpture, The Dinner 
Party (1974-1979), which she created with the assistance of a team of 
artists and craftsmen. The work consists of a triangular dinner table, each 
side 48 feet in length, on which there are 39 place settings designed to 
honor famous women throughout history, both real and mythical. The 
sculpture's ornamentation integrates traditional women's crafts, such as 
weaving and embroidery, with ceramics.
      Another major work is The Birth Project (1980-1985) that employs the 
needlework of 118 volunteers to portray the power of women expressed 
through childbirth. The sculpture contains the images of women in stages of 
pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. The needlework shows examples of 
embroidery, quilting, appliqué, crochet, beadwork, and so forth. Chicago's 
artistic goal was to "use the physical process of giving birth as a 
metaphor for the birth of the universe and of life itself."
      A third famous Chicago creation is the Holocaust Project: From 
Darkness into Light (1984-1993), in which she deals with themes of hatred, 
sorrow, violence, and the oppression of Jews, especially Jewish women. The 
artwork employs a combination of photography, painting, tapestry, and 
stained glass.
      Chicago's birth name was Judy Cohen, which she legally changed to 
Chicago, the city of her birth, in 1969. After earning B.A. and M.A. 
degrees at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), she taught 
in California from 1969 to 1973.
      Chicago has also promoted the feminist cause by publishing her 
journals and an autobiography. These writings include: "Through the Flower: 
My Struggle as a Woman Artist" (1975, revised 1982 and 1993) and "Beyond 
the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist" (1996). Chicago's 
artistic projects are now supported by the non-profit organization called 
Through the Flower, and a permanent home for The Dinner Party has been 
found at New York's Brooklyn Museum.
      In May 2003, Duke University recognized her life and work by awarding 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts.

[See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140244379/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for "The Dinner Party" by Judy Chicago. [Note: We donate all revenue from 
our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.]


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