Digital Commerce; Dreamworks' founders seem incapable of thinking ugly, which is the only way their venture will succeed
Article Abstract:
The entertainment company recently formed by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dreamworks SKG, received a $500,000 investment from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen only a few days before Dreamworks Interactive was formed. Dreamworks Interactive is a joint venture with Microsoft's Bill Gates to develop interactive titles. The news come as no surprise as both Allen and Gates are known for their lust for larger markets, but what is surprising is that no one has questioned the implications. The general public seems enthralled by the venture and awed by its potential power. However, very few visionaries from one industry have been successful in transferring their skills to another. The key to the mass acceptance of interactive media has been illusive. Bringing Hollywood and Silicon Valley together to create a super-industry is developing slowly. One reason is that a relatively minor story change can take a programmer six months to change.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1995
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Digital commerce; should an extension of current copyright law, tweaked a bit, govern the Internet?
Article Abstract:
Legislation attempting to regulate copyright issues on the global Internet has been introduced in Congress, but a solution is not expected soon. The Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Bruce Lehman, has drafted the National Information Infrastructure Copyright Act but the bill is stalled in Congress. The bill assumes existing copyright laws are sufficient and merely need to be extended to the Internet. Opponents contend that the existing law is insufficient because it does not deal with unique issues related to the transmission of information over computer networks. The bill does include provisions making it illegal to remove copyright identification from electronic data or to use unauthorized devices to decode electronically encrypted data. Online service providers and consumer electronics vendors are concerned with liability issues. The Digital Future Coalition is concerned that the bill will shift copyright power to the publishing industry.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1996
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On-line browsing got you down? Don't get mad, get cable
Article Abstract:
Cable television companies are beginning to offer computer users access to online information services and the Internet. Although only a small percentage of U.S. households currently have access to online information services, users are constantly demanding greater bandwidth in order to have access to digital graphics, sound and text. Computer-related methods of data transmission, such as via modem and ISDN, are offering increasingly fast data access but cable providers can provide users with a device called a cable modem that offers speeds as fast as 10 Mbps to 30 Mbps. Some cable companies are replacing conventional cables with hybrid fibre coaxial cable that is broken into regions. Users can then have the cable come into the home and split it into separate television and computer uses.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1995
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