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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiViT who wrote (37967)	12/30/1998 1:24:00 PM
From: Bob Strickland	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50808

And when the market is ripe for recordable DVD, no need for a decoder from ESST or ZRAN, you just buy a CODEC from C-Cube. Think about the market share C-Cube will grab when this occurs. Now that's exciting! By the way, why has C-Cube stopped announcing their decoder wins?

To: DiViT who wrote (37967)	12/31/1998 12:41:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

VCD disc production in Malaysia. In 1997, Malaysia was a 1M unit market for VCD players............................ New RIM line-up to chart bold course of action The New Straits Times RIDDLE me this: The Malaysian market only has room for four CD/video plants. So why are there 18 factories operating in the country? And all of them are legitimate, operating with licences issued by the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority. The matter was raised at a recent Press conference held by the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) in Kuala Lumpur. "If you wonder how the equipment was imported into the country, that's another story altogether. There are unscrupulous people out there who deceived the authorities by dismantling the parts and bringing them into the country as computer components. "Once they are here, the parts are reassembled at the plants, and printing and replicating activities could commence," said Intellectual Property Protection (IPP) Sdn Bhd executive director Francis Peters. IPP represents RIM and the Motion Pictures Association in their battle against piracy. This brings us to the next issue which has irked these concerned parties - the vagueness about many of the piracy-related cases. The "Kepong CD/VCD plant caper", which occurred some time last August, was an example. During raids on two plants in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, a substantial quantity of suspected pirated products were found in the replicating rooms. According to RIM, one of the operators was also caught in the act of replicating a current box-office title into VCD format. In spite of all the evidence available, the raiding team from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, for some reason, decided not to seal or seize any of the equipment. The machines from the raids were apparently released unconditionally - not even on a court bond. "Yes, they are still operating," confirmed a rather exasperated newly-elected RIM chairman Tony Fernandes. "But we've learnt from that episode. We realise that most of the time, we lose on technical grounds when we reach the courts. It is still a difficult task, but we are working closely with the authorities to overcome the problems. We're now looking at new ways to confront piracy." He said piracy remains the main concern of RIM as it has "robbed" the industry in quite a big way. "This year alone, apart from the prevailing economic uncertainty which has reduced people's extra disposable income, piracy has stolen a huge chunk from the recording industry. "Sales of music products have declined by 40 per cent this year. At the moment, we can't really guess what it's going to be like next year," he added. Although piracy remains on top of RIM's "hit list", there are other concerns as well. One of them is to standardise the accreditation of album sales to recording artistes. This means that from Jan 1, RIM is the only body which can give awards to artistes who have surpassed a certain sales benchmark. At the moment, it is standard practice for recording companies to present their artistes with gold or platinum awards based on their album sales. "With this new measure, we hope to curb such abuses among recording companies," said Fernandes. "It's time that we gave these awards credibility and transparency. This new system would ensure that album sales are checked and confirmed by an independent auditor appointed by us." The awards would in turn enjoy a similar prestige to the awards given out in other countries like in the US. To achieve a gold award, the sales of a Bahasa Malaysia album need to surpass the 25,000 mark while Chinese and English albums have to breach the 15,000 figure. Platinum awards will be given to artistes whose album sales exceed 25,000 units (for Chinese and English albums) and 50,000 units (for Malay albums). The development of the local Chinese music market is another project RIM will embark on. "Our Chinese segment of the recording industry has made great strides over the past few years. We should recognise local Chinese-language artistes, who have made quite a mark. Some have even penetrated foreign markets." This has prompted RIM to introduce the Anugerah Industri Muzik-Chinese (AIM-Chinese) awards to recognise and further encourage the development of the local Chinese repertoire. To reflect RIM's new strength and vigour, a new logo was also introduced. It has adopted a bolder symbol, the rebana ubi, which replaces the rather obscure rebab in the previous logo. (Copyright 1998)