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To: MaryinRed who wrote (15048)	9/21/2000 10:45:26 PM
From: Savant	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 18366

*****Securities & Exchange Commission Letter***** Mr. Jonathan G. Katz Secretary Securities and Exchange Commission 450 Fifth Street Washington, D.C. 20549 Or email address: Rule-comments@sec.gov Re: Release No. 34 42037 (File No. S72499), Short Sale Regulation Dear Mr. Katz: Rather than eliminate Rule 10a-1 or loosen the restrictions on short selling, the Commission should focus on more effectively enforcing the current short sale rules and should extend those rules to non-exchange listed securities. In my experience, the unchecked abuse of the current short sale rules deprive individual investors of essential investor protections and make it more expensive for companies to raise capital. In addition, exempting market makers and not extending the rules to non-exchange listed securities and the over-the-counter market deprive thousands of issuers and tens of thousands of investors from the protection of the rule that was adopted to curb a recognized abusive practice that has increased in recent years in these markets with the lack of regulation and the increased availability of enhanced communication and information technology such as the Internet. I will focus my comments on the question of whether the short sale regulations should be extended to the OTC-BB market and other non-exchange listed securities markets. For the reasons stated in this letter I believe they should. I do not see how a market maker or other short seller can make a legitimate market when they have put themselves in a naked position in which they cannot cover in the face of unexpected good news and positive developments except at significantly higher prices. Their economic interests are so adverse to the majority of the other shareholders, that they must control the price in order to protect their position. I believe that short selling in many companies' securities has: (a) artificially inflated the number of shares available in the market. (b) artificially depressed the price of the shares. I have observed short-selling, price capping, buy-high-sell-low strategies, "painting the tape" trading and other actions that have served to limit many companies' access to capital, diminished or suppressed the value of their shares and resulted in a volatile stock price for their securities on an almost daily basis. This short selling has proven extremely detrimental to many companies and their shareholders. We firmly believe that the Commission can and should take steps to curb these abuses, beginning with the extension of short selling regulations to non-exchange listed securities and the markets in which they are traded. Specifically, we recommend that the Commission: 1. Extend regulation of short sales to all currently unregulated markets for non-exchange listed securities. 2. Permit regulated short selling, subject to the monitoring, reporting and volume limitations discussed below. We believe there is a place for legitimate short selling, provided it is not manipulative. We believe that imposing the limitations now used in the Nasdaq National Market and in the national exchanges would be a very strong step forward to curbing abuse in the OTC markets. 3. Require reporting and increased monitoring of short selling in the OTC markets. This would include imposing a requirement that all short sales be instantly reported in such a way that the net long position of each account participating in a short sale and flags naked shorting, down tick shorting and other "bear raid shorting." 4. Limit market maker short selling and permit short selling only to meet legitimate temporary intra-day needs to maintain an orderly market. 5. Implement velocity and volume limits on short sales. Prohibit the immediate re-lending of shares for further short sales that have been loaned to permit a short trade. Establish volume limits for aggregate short sales that include time limits for open short positions, volume limits on related accounts, and allocation of the volume limits among short selling participants. We urge the Commission to extend short selling regulations to non-exchange listed securities. Signed:_______________________________

To: MaryinRed who wrote (15048)	9/22/2000 1:31:30 AM
From: bob	Respond to of 18366

Posted on RB by Berge. UNIVERSAL LICENSES MUSIC CATALOG TO DIGITAL ENCODER By Evan Hansen Staff Writer, CNET News.com September 21, 2000, 9:01 p.m. PT Seagram's Universal Music Group has reached a licensing agreement with digital media company Loudeye Technologies to digitally store and encode its entire U.S. active catalog of audio and music video titles. In a deal expected to be announced tomorrow, Loudeye said it will begin streaming 30- and 60-second promotional audio and video clips from the Universal catalog. The company added that it eventually plans to host uncompressed versions of some 14,000 Universal audio tracks and 30,000 music videos, which it will redistribute to third-party vendors in popular streaming and download formats. "We'll be storing 150 terabytes (of data)," said Martin Tobias, Loudeye's chief executive. "Between us and the U.S. Department of Defense, there's nobody else who comes close" to that capacity, he quipped. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The arrangement promises to streamline the process of creating versions of Universal tracks for online digital sales. Loudeye will provide custom formatting for vendors, including links to CD art and "metatags," which provide information about the artist and song titles for the purpose of tracking sales. Loudeye's competitors include Sonic Foundry, which has also signed deals with big content companies including Sony, Warner Bros. and BMG Entertainment. Loudeye, which went public in March, has deals to convert content for several media and entertainment companies, including AtomFilms, BMG, EMusic, EMI-Capitol Music Group, Sony, Warner Bros. Online and Universal. Tomorrow's deal is its first major foray into hosting content. The deal is an important win for Loudeye and signals an endorsement of digital music distribution by the giant record label. The music industry has been slow to embrace the Internet but has began to move more quickly in the wake of the merger proposed in January between America Online and Time Warner. The deal, which could bring together two of the largest record labels with Warner Bros.' proposed purchase of EMI Recorded Music, has put the issue of convergence between old and new media companies on the front burner. All of the major labels have announced online distribution plans, although none has moved beyond the experimental phase. Seagram chief executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. in March said Universal would begin offering a limited selection of its catalog for download from its Global E Web site. It has also unveiled a series of online partnerships, including a deal with start-up Musicbank, which plans to launch an Internet music "locker" service allowing CD buyers to listen to online versions of songs they've purchased. The label has aggressively asserted its copyrights online, remaining the sole plaintiff to go to trial in a lawsuit brought by all five of the major recording companies against MP3.com over its music locker service, dubbed My.MP3.com. A federal judge earlier this month found that MP3.com willfully infringed Universal's copyrights and ordered the company to pay $25,000 for each violation--a judgment that could force the company to shell out as much as $250 million. The tally will be determined at a court hearing later this year. Universal characterized its deal with Loudeye as a significant step further into the digital waters. "Having Loudeye host and stream (Universal's) audio and video clips enables (Universal) to further market, promote and drive sales of our artists' music over the Internet," Larry Kenswil, president of Universal's eLabs online division, said in a statement. yahoo.cnet.com Content is on its way folks.