licenses
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Bragi sells off its in-ear headphone business as it focuses on software
Bragi hasn't been shy about transitioning away from making consumer-facing earbuds and toward developing high-concept features, but it's now clear that shift is complete. The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it sold its hardware business to an unnamed company in March, finishing a "transformation" into a company focused on AI, software and patent licenses. If you see its technology in the future, it'll be part of someone else's earbuds.
AT&T and Time Warner have a plan to dodge merger review
AT&T has indicated how it may avoid FCC scrutiny over its proposed $85.4 billion Time Warner merger. At issue are Time Warner's FCC broadcast licenses -- if were to transfer them to AT&T, that would require FCC approval. However, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), AT&T said "it is currently anticipated that Time Warner will not need to transfer any of its FCC licenses ... after the closing of the transaction."
How to stop Yahoo from cashing in on your Flickr images
If you post Flickr images with a commercial-use creative commons license, Yahoo has a little surprise: it will soon be free to sell them and keep all the money. It recently decided to peddle canvas prints of selected photos for up to $50, taking 100 percent of the revenue from creative commons users who permit free use of their images. That contrasts with a recent decision it made to give select users with non-commercial-use licenses 51 percent of sales for the same "Wall Art" collections. The new policy has made many of the site's devotees upset -- especially pro account users -- who say that while they're fine with third-party companies using their photos, they're not fine at all with Flickr itself selling them for profit.
RIM licenses Microsoft's exFAT file system to stuff extra-large files into BlackBerry devices
RIM has big ambitions for media on BlackBerry hardware -- really big. Accordingly, it just reached a patent licensing deal with Microsoft that lets it use the exFAT file system on "certain BlackBerry devices." We have a hunch that's a reference to future BlackBerry 10 phones and tablets rather than retrofits of existing (and likely incapable) mobile gear. The move will let any devices that do recognize exFAT handle much larger files, such as long videos, in addition to streamlining transfers between computers and other gadgets. The conditions of the deal haven't been given out, but we suspect RIM's negotiations with Microsoft were on more voluntary terms than those faced by Android supporters.
EU ruling forces digital distribution to allow game transfers, may lead to legal account sales
If you're completely done with your account for a game, you may be tempted to sell it... but doing so usually nets you the wrath of the publisher and a ban on the account, rendering it useless. But that may be changing in the near future. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled today that publishers must allow the resale of digital licenses for software by the user, regardless of what was stated in the original EULA for the game. While the precise wording might be confusing for those members of the audience not versed in legalese, the upshot is that services such as Steam must allow a way for users to sell their existing games to others, even if the EULA forbids it. This precedent could easily extend to resale of game accounts, since the key used to activate your Star Wars: The Old Republic account qualifies as a license enabling play of the game. No word yet on whether or not this will extend to the US, where many of the game companies in question are based.
Amazon reportedly adding music rights to Cloud Player, could close gap with iCloud
Amazon's Cloud Player app just made its way to the iPhone and iPod touch, but the company's web-based music service still lacks the license deals that make Apple's iCloud a more seamless experience. While iCloud scans a user's hard drive to match songs and stream them from iTunes, Cloud Player requires listeners to manually upload copies of their music to the cloud. According to CNET's "industry sources," Amazon is looking to close that gap by inking agreements with major labels and has already made deals with EMI and Universal Music Group. This story is still very much in the rumor phase, but obtaining those licenses certainly sounds like a logical step for a service meant to make enjoying files across several devices easier.
How much is a brand name license worth? Part 2
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. My first article on the issues of brand licensing and Bobby Kotick's comments pondering the profitability problems that Star Wars: The Old Republic could potentially have due to the amount of money it costs to license the Star Wars franchise received some nice follow-up emails. Many readers sent in emails about why people hold their licenses to their chests and charge so much, when it would logically be better to get the brand name on anything and everything people touch. After all, more products with your logo on them is good, right? Well ... Not really, and not always. Last week, I confessed to not knowing the amount of money Lucas was going to be paid for the Star Wars license for The Old Republic, but we could surmise that it would be a hefty fee. Readers pointed to an article by Eurogamer that interviews Michael Pachter, a games industry analyst many people know of. He believes that the cut LucasArts will be taking is around 35% of the revenue split after Electronic Arts makes back all of the cash that it puts into the game itself. If that's true, it's pretty astonishing, since LucasArts has so much faith in EA and BioWare to make this game have some intense staying power. Where World of Warcraft is concerned, Blizzard lives in a different world where rather than have to choose the perfect partner to make the next StarCraft game, it has to operate as the LucasArts-like party, finding the right people to make everything associated with its brands. Where The Old Republic is another Star Wars product, Blizzard's most popular franchise is a game first and a world of products secondary.
How much is a brand name license worth?
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. Back at the beginning of the year, I wrote a piece for The Lawbringer called The power of licensing, including a brief account of what licensing is and what effects and benefits licensing your product has on brand recognition and where you make money on your product. Licensing is essentially granting someone the right to make and sell stuff with your intellectual property on it. Usually, you're not allowed to sell "stuff," in the loosest sense of the word, with images, artwork, characters, and so on that are not yours. Ownership rights are a little weird to grasp. Back in November, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick made some comments before the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic concerning whether the game would be profitable at all, given the amount BioWare is paying to Lucas for the rights to even make a Star Wars game. Kotick's comments rang a very special bell in my brain, prompting me to think about the licensing contract that BioWare and Lucasfilm have over the Star Wars franchise, as well as the reverse Blizzard model in which the entire franchise is owned in-house. George Lucas was a pioneer in the realm of movie merchandising, keeping the rights to all of the Star Wars characters and creating one of the most profitable toy and promotional brands in the history of entertainment. The Star Wars franchise is so incredibly far-reaching and part of our society that my younger brother knew that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father years before he ever saw the movies. He was, however, very surprised at the whole Luke and Leia sibling deal. The reach, power, and control that Lucas exerts over his licensee partners is second to none.
Verizon Wireless and Cricket handshake over spectrum, anticipate FCC nod of approval
Verizon Wireless and Cricket are looking to swap spectrum holdings, according to a recent FCC filing. The proposed license exchange would see VZW's Block A 700MHz holdings in Chicago handed to Cricket for the purpose of LTE service in the second city. Big Red's purported gain has less to do with its burgeoning 4G build out and more to do with increased high-speed wireless coverage, as the bounty of AWS-1 and PCS licenses it might acquire would bolster its extensive nationwide network. The transaction still has to receive FCC approval, but both parties involved appear confident the transfer of radio waves won't raise any red flags for the Commission, nor impact existing subscriber service. That's all she wrote for now, but we'll keep an eagle eye out and update you as this develops. In the meantime, hit up the source below to peruse the application.
Microsoft and Quanta ink patent licensing agreement, Android continues to print money for its rival
Microsoft's crossed yet another name off its patent licensing hit list, and this time the big red target lands squarely on Quanta. Under the undisclosed terms of the agreement, Android and Chrome-based devices manufactured by the Taiwanese OEM will be protected by Redmond's vast patent portfolio. Of course, this means MS'll receive royalties for granting access to its treasure trove of related IPs -- of which it has no dearth of at the moment. In other news, Google continues to hope it's all just a case of "opposite day." Official PR in all its vagueness after the break.
Ask Massively: Let's stop the tomfoolery edition
Last week, it was brought to my attention that our header image of ham rendered the entire column completely inappropriate for several of our readers. And you know what? That comment was entirely right. We've subsisted on ridiculous headers and general japery for far too long in this serious and businesslike column, and it's time to bring the calm and measured dignity that people expect -- nay, demand -- from Ask Massively. Unfortunately, this decision comes too late to avoid the fact that this week's header image is a kitten attempting to scale the back of an adult cat's head. It will probably help if you imagine both of these cats wearing business suits and discussing profit margins. Moving along: This week's questions should provide you with clean and intellectual discourse, covering free-for-all PvP and the recent free-to-play announcements from Sony Online Entertainment. If you have a question for a future edition of the column, please leave it in the comment field or mail it along to ask@massively.com.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer says '400 million Windows 7 licenses sold'
So much for not keeping pace, huh? We heard back in June of last year that Microsoft had blown through 150 million Windows 7 licenses, and just a few months later, it had surpassed 240 million. At this year's Worldwide Partner Conference, head honcho Steve Ballmer took great pleasure in announcing that said figure has now swollen to beyond 400 million in under two years. Not surprisingly, that makes Win7 the fastest-selling operating system in history, and Tami Reller -- corporate vice president and chief financial officer of Windows and Windows Live -- made clear that it's "the path to Windows 8." The outfit also announced that 100 million copies of Office 2010 have flown off the shelves since launch, and while no one really came out and said it, we're counting on seeing a Windows 8 build at the BUILD event this fall. Head on past the break for a whole heaping of (deserved) self-congratulations.
Microsoft inks Android patent deal with Velocity Micro -- sound familiar?
Further proving that patent infringement claims are incentive enough to drum up licensing deals, yet another Android device maker has signed on the dotted line to pay up to Redmond. Following up on Monday's licensing agreement with Itronix, Microsoft has just announced a deal with Velocity Micro, Inc., that will have the outfit feeding the software giant's coffers. Of course, details are scarce here; in fact, all we really know is Velocity Micro will pay royalties in regards to its Android-based devices, including the Cruz Tablet. Looks like those talks are paying off. Full PR after the break. Update: Looks like Onkyo's playing nice, too.
Microsoft inks Android patent deal with Itronix, causes more heads to explode
We've already noted our slip into Bizarro World, a strange and topsy-turvy land where -- thanks to patent-infringement claims -- Microsoft strikes licensing deals with Android device makers. Redmond has used a carrot-and-stick strategy thus far, suing competing manufacturers (Barnes and Noble, Motorola) while reaching a protective royalty agreement with HTC, which, not coincidentally, also makes Windows Phones. Today, another company joins the licensee list: General Dynamics Itronix, known for its rugged computers, some of which do run Windows. Neither company offered much in the way of details, other than declaring that Itronix will pay royalties, but we've no reason to believe it's too different from HTC's arrangement. See the press release after the break for an excellent example of terse, unrevealing business-speak.
Alter-Ego: DCUO's console conundrum
With the first month of DC Universe Online now in the past, the time has come for that all-important MMO decision -- is the game worth renewing? For some, the answer is no. The first major patch still has not dropped; it's meant to offer us many fixes and the new content we've been told is coming. Some players have hit the level cap and aren't interested in leveling alts or doing endgame content. Whatever each person's reason may be, the shine is wearing off for some. Meanwhile, Hal Halpin, President of the Entertainment Consumer's Association, recently wrote a piece that presented another reason that some may not be renewing: Console gamers are feeling that Sony Online Entertainment has been less than open about the game's being locked to a single account. Many are upset about not being able to trade DC Universe Online in for another game now that their free month is up. His reasoning? "The problem, of course, is that console games are sold and the ownership conveyed, along with rights." There's only one flaw in that statement: This isn't anything new -- not even on consoles.
Hulu CEO welcomes back The Daily Show & more from Viacom, lays out a battle plan for the future
The news spinning around Hulu hasn't been positive lately, with increasing competition and rumors of a change in business model, but CEO Jason Kilar's latest blog post tells a different side of the story. First, after popular choices like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were unceremoniously yanked back in April it has a new deal with Viacom that's bringing those shows back to Hulu and Hulu Plus starting today, with episodes of current shows like Jersey Shore and Tosh.0 showing up 21 days after they air. Strictly for the pay subscribers, library episodes of The Chappelle Show and others will show up on Hulu Plus. As for the future of the business, he sees Hulu as able to serve trends giving customers more convenient video access with less ads and more social media presence -- a goal we can get behind, but that may leave content providers wondering how they'll get paid in this shiny new world. To that end he's touting the growth of Hulu's ad revenue as seen in the chart after the break and the rising number of Hulu Plus subscribers with a promise to hit 1 million this year. While that's well behind Netflix's most recent count, he's taking a new shot at the throne by claiming Hulu can afford to pay more for content and that studios should start signing deals on per-user, per-month basis instead of the flat rates Netflix has negotiated so far. Give the full thing a read to get a better idea of where Jason's head is at (when he's not planning a GTL run, check the pr after the break for more details on that), we'll be busy watching Jon Stewart's interview with Michael Steele. Update: Peter Kafka over All Things Digital has word that the deal cost Hulu somewhere between $40m and $50m -- and that sum could increase depending upon the shows' performance.
EA: Movie licenses going the 'wrong way' for game publishers
EA Games president Frank Gibeau has told Develop that the licensing deals involved in the development of movie-based games are going the "wrong way" for publishers. He described the movie-game business as "falling apart," with returns on investment often failing to justify the costs involved in securing popular properties for a video game. According to Gibeau, EA considers itself better off working on its own IP like Dead Space, rather than spending it on something with the creative limitations like the James Bond series (a license now held by rival Activision). "The days of licensed-based, 75-rated games copies are dead like the dinosaur," the executive said. Well, that's something we can agree on -- the days of 37-rated movie-based games has dawned, as evidenced recently by EA Bright Light's abysmal Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
The Lawbringer: Blizzard and machinima
The relationship Blizzard has cultivated and presented to the machinima community is, in a word, rare. Not unexpected, but rare. Companies such as Blizzard that hold such a hot property like the Warcraft series usually are tight with licensing. Blizzard is also ridiculous-smart -- you don't get the amount of success it has without being something ridiculous. At an early stage, the company realized that giving a fair amount of leniency to machinima would reap some awesome benefits. That theory has paid off, not only for Blizzard but for the community as well, in spades. This week, Lawbringer delves into the fairly broad Blizzard-machinima artist relationship. The seeds of this quick look at the rules of machinima came from Myndflame's own look at Blizzard's policies back in 2009. Like I said before, this relationship is unique in its openness. In fact, Blizzard openly courts machinima artists in sponsored contests as well as through its official policies on the art form.
Microsoft says Android infringes on its patents, licenses HTC (update: talking to other Android manufacturers as well)
The lawyers up in Redmond seem to have been woken from their slumber with the sudden realization that -- oh look! -- Google's Android OS infringes on Microsoft's boatload of software patents. How specifically it does so is not identified, but Microsoft believes that elements from both the user interface and the underlying operating system are in violation of its rights. This is very much in keeping with the Windows maker's crusade to assert patent claims over Linux, which in the past has garnished it with cross-licensing deals with Amazon and Xandros, as well as a settlement from TomTom. Lawsuits are not yet being discussed here, but lest you think this is a small-time disturbance, longtime Windows Mobile / Windows Phone partner HTC has already decided to shorten its list of troubles by ponying up for a license from Microsoft that covers its Android phones -- it would be pretty insane if Microsoft sued one of its biggest and most important hardware manufacturers for patent infringement, after all. Even still, it's now an unfortunate fact that HTC is having to pay Microsoft royalties to use Google's operating system. Strange days, indeed. Update: Microsoft deputy general counsel of intellectual property Horacio Gutierrez just sent us a statement saying that the company's been "talking to several device manufacturers to address our concerns relative to the Android mobile platform." We're taking that to mean the same as above: Microsoft isn't too interested in suing any of its Windows Mobile / Windows Phone partners, so it's trying to work out patent license deals with those companies in advance of any nastiness. It's an interesting strategy: patents forbid anyone from making, using, or selling your invention, so Redmond can protect its partners while still leaving open the possibility of a lawsuit with Google itself down the line. In fact, we'd almost say it seems like Microsoft's agreement with HTC is as much of a threat to Google as Apple's lawsuit -- Redmond's basically saying you can't sell an Android device without paying a license fee, and we'd bet those fees are real close to the Windows Phone 7 license fee. Clever, clever -- we'll see how this one plays out. Here's Horacio's full statement: Microsoft has a decades-long record of investment in software platforms. As a result, we have built a significant patent portfolio in this field, and we have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to ensure that competitors do not free ride on our innovations. We have also consistently taken a proactive approach to licensing to resolve IP infringement by other companies, and have been talking with several device manufacturers to address our concerns relative to the Android mobile platform. [Thanks, Jack]
C64 creators also bringing Amiga, Atari 2600 emulators to iPhone
I just posted at the end of last week about Manomio's decision to go free with its licensed C64 emulator for the iPhone, but today it let us know that there are even more plans in the works. Given the success in porting C64 games (with official licenses) over to the iPhone, Manomio is working on two more emulators right now, including the Atari 2600 emulator seen above (Frogger! Space Invaders!) and an Amiga 500 emulator as well. Both apps are simply tech demos at the moment, and while Apple generally hasn't been very friendly to emulators on the iPhone, Manomio has put in its dues -- the company sorted out the emulator code in such a way that it's Apple-approved, and it's already worked with C64 license owners to make sure the games can be legally released on the iPhone, some free and some as in-app purchases. Of course, chasing down the Atari licenses might be a little tougher than the more obscure C64 titles, but if it's possible to get these old gaming gems on the iPhone, Manumio will probably pull it off. Stay tuned -- when you can play the original Frogger on your iPhone, we'll let you know.
