EMI Music announces that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management restrictions.

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio and Chrysler Group announced that Chrysler Group will be the first and only auto manufacturer to offer SIRIUS Backseat TV in its 2008 model-year vehicle lineup. SIRIUS Backseat TV is a dynamic and pioneering TV service that delivers TV from the best family TV programmers directly to the vehicles.

Whether driving cross-country or cross-town, families will be able to access SIRIUS Backseat TV's high quality television entertainment and family TV fare through a simple, easy-to-operate video service. SIRIUS Backseat TV is TV programming from the world's most trusted brands in family entertainment -- Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network. The service will be available in select 2008 model Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles, beginning with the all-new 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, available later this year.

IP technology company, Honestech has released a trial version of it's Video Patrol 5.0 monitoring surveillance software. Video Patrol 5.0 utlizes your standard web cam and PC into a monitoring system that can protect and patrol homes and businesses and be monitored real-time over the Internet using another computer or your mobile device. The trial version provides 30 days of full functionality, and works with a users existing webcam.

If you weren't already getting enough spam in your inbox, you can now expect it via your daily video site. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting write-up about growing signs that video spam has arrived. In the article, they cite an example where a video titled "Hot Blonde Tells You How She Wants to..." received 500,000 views and achieved the 6th slot in Google Video's Top 10. (The video is still in the Top 10 at #9.) The video contains a list of misleading keywords including sexually explicit terms, "Harry Potter", and "Pirates of the Caribbean". The woman in the video then directs users to a site that explains "How to Make Buckets of Cash". (Big surprise. Maybe this video would have been a better fit for how-to site VideoJug.)

According to the article, a YouTube spokesman said that video spam is not a problem, however, AOL's Tim Tuttle, a vice president at AOL Video and a co-founder of the Truveo video search engine feels differently, "Without a doubt, we've noticed an increase in the past six months."

Sapna Satagopan, an analyst at JupiterResearch said, "Marketers are starting to ask about it."

The boiling point has been reached as Viacom today stated that it has sued YouTube and Google for what they claim is "massive intentional copyright infringement of Viacom's entertainment properties."

Viacom said, "After a great deal of unproductive negotiation, and remedial efforts by ourselves and other copyright holders, YouTube continues in its unlawful business model. Therefore, we must turn to the courts to prevent Google and YouTube from continuing to steal value from artists and to obtain compensation for the significant damage they have caused."

The suit was filed in in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and seeks more than $1 billion in damages, as well as an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement.

Viacom has been quite critical of YouTube in the past couple of weeks after content distribution negotiations between the two companies went sour. Viacom has since ordered YouTube to remove all videos but Viacom's complaint contends that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom's programming have been available on YouTube and that these clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

The number of video game consoles in U.S. television households has expanded by 18.5% since the fourth quarter of 2004, according to a new report released by Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services, a service of The Nielsen Company. In the fourth quarter of 2006 there were 45.7 million homes with video game consoles, representing 41.1% of all TV households, compared to 39.1% (43 million) in 2005, and 35.2% (38.6 million) the previous year.

Apple said in January that their new Apple TV device would hit the shelves sometime in February. However, Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox said today that "wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected." Fox went on to say that shipments should begin in mid-March but did not provide any further detail around what is causing the delay.

For more information on Apple TV, see Here Comes Apple TV.

The March issue of Business 2.0 hit the newsstands today and contains their list of 25 startup companies to watch. The Business 2.0 selections are also available via their website.

Who does Business 2.0 believe is best positioned for success in 2007? The winners will be the players that invent new ways to tap into what the Web brings to the party: instant feedback, instant analysis, and the collective wisdom of a billion users. "The losers are likely to be those companies that try to make money by pouring old-media wine into the new Web bottles," the magazine adds.

This will be the second annual edition of the next net. Many of the magazine's choices last year were forward-looking: Digg, Trulia, Technorati, JotSpot, Writely. (The last two were snapped up by Google.) But one of last year's 25 succeeded even beyond the magazine's expectations: YouTube, which was purchased in October by Google for a game-changing $1.65 billion.

When Time Warner and Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner decided to back Veoh Networks, I'm sure the last thing they had in mind was producing yet another site with unauthorized content. Yet again this is the case with video sharing site Veoh.com. The only difference being that they have a new issue on their hands.

Veoh claims its advantage in the video sharing world is due to their peer-to-peer technology and ability to stream long-format high-quality video. Well as you can guess, this has provided an even better venue for the sharing of some full length content.

So what is Veoh's response to all of this: blame the people who are posting the material!

"We have a policy that specifically states that when we see copyright material posted, we take it down," said Veoh Networks CEO Dmitry Shapiro. "This problem is the democratization of publishing. Anyone can now post a video to the Internet. Sometimes the material belongs to someone else. We take this very seriously."

CNET has a great write-up on this.

The rumors and whisperings have finally come true--XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement, under which the companies will be combined in a tax-free, all-stock merger of equals with a combined enterprise value of approximately $13 billion, which includes net debt of approximately $1.6 billion.

Now the big question is, will the merger be approved? The transaction is subject to approval by both companies' shareholders, the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and regulatory review and approvals, including antitrust agencies and the FCC. The issue is that the FCC has already hinted that it might not approve a merger of the two satellite giants.

Pending regulatory approval, the companies expect the transaction to be completed by the end of 2007.

Under the terms of the agreement, XM shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 4.6 shares of SIRIUS common stock for each share of XM they own. XM and SIRIUS shareholders will each own approximately 50 percent of the combined company.

Mel Karmazin, currently Chief Executive Officer of SIRIUS, will become Chief Executive Officer of the combined company and Gary Parsons, currently Chairman of XM, will become Chairman of the combined company.

On Friday, Joost (formerly the Venice Project) released version 0.8 of their beta player for Windows and also the first Mac beta. According to the Joost team, the availability of a Mac version has been their most emailed question. However, the new Mac beta is only for Intel Macs.

In version 0.8 of Joost, they have included a new CoreAVC video decoder and added some additional content. We gave the new version a whirl and did notice a small difference. We previewed some of the newly added documentaries from National Geographic. While the video was quite blurry when the application was fully expanded, it did look cleaner when we minimized it to a smaller window. However, we still encountered some jitteriness while playing and when trying to stop and close the player, it locked up on us. O'well, that's a beta for you.

IT Pro reports that while speaking at the Communications Management Association's annual conference, UK's Ofcom chairman, Lord Currie, said there is currently no case for regulating fibre to the home. "But the services are not yet defined, the technology is not yet stable, and so it is too early for a regulatory approach. The case for digging up the road is a rather weak one."

Steve Jobs has written an open letter to the music industry urging them to look differently at DRM. In it, Jobs explains how DRM doesn't work and the tug-of-war Apple and other companies play with DRM-hackers hinders consumer interest rather than protect the music.

Jobs then provides the options at hand:

• Continue down the current path where iTunes content only plays on the iPod and Microsoft's Music Store content on the Zune. The current DRM hurts consumers as it limits their ability to move music, such as that purchased via iTunes, between devices produced by other manufacturers. Jobs also provides some interesting statistics, such as only 3% of the content on the average iPod is DRM protected.
• The second option would include Apple licensing their DRM-protection to other companies to ensure interoperability between players. The issue is that as more people have the DRM-protection in their hands, the chances for leaks increase. If the DRM-protection is then compromised, Apple would need to work with the full list of vendors to develop a fix and it would be nearly impossible for the updates to be done quickly and in concert. Lastly, Apple would no longer be able to guarantee protection of the music it licenses to the record labels.
• The last alternative that Jobs suggests is to abolish DRM altogether. Jobs writes, "Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player."

Lastly, Jobs makes a little jab at Europe as many countries in the EU have been the ones crying out for Apple to share it's DRM-protection. "Perhaps those [European countries] unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."

Verizon is warning its West Virginia customers about an increasing number of criminal acts that have caused major telephone service outages, creating risks to public safety for thousands of customers across the state.

Over the past 12 months, thieves have been responsible for nearly 45 incidents involving theft of copper telephone cables and electronic equipment, as well as vandalism to Verizon's telecommunications network. More than 17,000 customers have unnecessarily experienced telephone service delays - up to five days in some cases - and endured serious risks to their personal safety.

St. Louis, Missouri at the request of Mayor Francis Slay, has introduced a bill for AT&T to create a city-wide WiFi network. "Although it has been a long time coming, this is a great opportunity for the City of St. Louis. City residents will have broadband wireless Internet access in return for us allowing AT&T to put their equipment on our light poles and street lights," stated Slay.

The service will be primarily free with an optional fee for higher speeds. "The free service will help close the digital divide, provide Internet access for families on a budget, and be an amenity for tourists, convention goers and other visitors to our City. The paid service will be attractive to heavier users and high-end business customers who want faster wireless Internet."

The planned service should be available, starting in our Central Business District, later this year.