Verance, reacting to SESAC settlement agreement with Digimarc under which performing rights organization will discontinue promoting and distributing Verance broadcast monitoring software (CED Nov 30 p6), said it understood SESAC’s position. But “we view this only as a temporary suspension of SESAC’s use of our products,” pending outcome of patent litigation between Verance and Digimarc, said Verance CEO Robert Cerasoli. He said Digimarc’s suit accusing SESAC of patent infringement was “yet another illustration of our contention that Digimarc is engaging in a pattern of harassment and intimidation through repetitive lawsuits in an effort to eliminate competition for watermarking technology.” Digimarc has 3 patent infringement suits pending against Verance, which recently filed countersuit against Digimarc with variety of charges including violation of federal and state antitrust laws.

Dolby Labs used Audio Engineering Society convention in N.Y.C. to demonstrate new Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) encoder, with Liquid Audio as first licensee. Dolby said Liquid Audio planned to implement AAC encoder in new version of Liquid Player software for introduction early in 2002. Dolby said AAC audio quality was “far superior” to that of MP3 but required 30% less bandwidth. Dolby is worldwide patent administrator for AAC on behalf of other developers, including AT&T, Fraunhofer Institute, Sony.

As Korean online videogame maker NCsoft continues to seek broader role in U.S. market, company said it was seeking to have its stock -- now traded only in Korea -- co-listed on Nasdaq in U.S. NCsoft Austin Exec. Producer Richard Garriott told us there was “no hard date” for when that might happen, but said it would be “probably the latter part of next year.” Company also is negotiating with U.S. publishers to host their games in Asia and inviting U.S. and European game developers to publish worldwide using NCsoft’s service backbone, he said. NCsoft, which says it’s world’s largest independent online game company, recently started offering online medieval fantasy game Lineage in U.S. Title was introduced first in Korea in 1998 and Garriott said one out of every 30 persons there played game. Game was later introduced in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan before making its way to U.S. Garriott said NCsoft would introduce it in U.K. this month and in additional Asian countries “very soon.” Company expects subscription online gaming segment of market will surpass profitability of traditional retail computer game sales in 2 years and in “2 or 3 years” will top retail computer game revenue, Garriott said. Next online title from NCsoft has working title Tabula Rasa (Blank Slate), he said, but he told us game had been in production for 6 months and its introduction was “a ways off” as average online game takes 2-3 years to develop. Although he expects audience for online games to broaden in U.S. from its current niche, hardcore gamer base, he said it would depend largely on rate at which broadband became more mainstream, which he put at 3-5 years.

Activision started shipping E- (Everyone) rated Game Boy Advance side-scrolling title Alienators: Evolution Continues at $39.99.

Acer Communications & Multimedia (ACM) said it would start DVD-ROM drive shipments for Xbox this week. First shipments will be about 300,000 units, increasing Acer’s Dec. optical drive shipments to 1.5 million units. Taiwan company projected Xbox orders would add minimum of $150 million to its revenue next year. Reports said Acer this month would ship 700,000 DVD-ROM drives, 500,000 CD-ROM drives, 300,000 CD-RW drives.

House Commerce Committee leaders held their 2nd go-round with industry leaders involved in digital transition -- along with FCC Chmn. Powell -- and several participants agreed afterward that cable compatibility and copyright issues were major problems delaying transition. As compared with Oct. meeting that went nowhere, participant told us, “this time [Congress members] listened and got more information about what the problems are” and how they could be solved.

Latest Philips ax to fall will cut 300 jobs at Philips Research subsidiary worldwide, company announced Thurs. Reductions represent about 10% of subsidiary’s work force and was necessary to adjust to “the lower level of short-term contracts” at Philips parent, company said. It said cutbacks won’t affect longer-term research investments, which are paid for corporately.

Zenith is weighing its options in wake of NEC’s decision to lower price of 61W plasma display panel (PDP) to $19,995 from $27,995, spokesman said. Zenith shipped LG Electronics-built 60W in Aug. at $24,999. On industrial side, Information Systems Products Mktg. Dir. Bennett Norell said company hadn’t made final decision on possible price move. “We're evaluating the price changes and seeing if there is room to move,” Norell said. “If the factory is willing to sell it to us at price where we can cover our margins, it’s possible for us. With these new larger screen sizes they [the factory] developed a new line to run them so they have to have some level of production. If the demand is not quite there yet, they may try to ramp up with lower pricing to get things running.” Meanwhile, LG will ship internal multiformat PC recording drive in Feb. at $799. Drive can write CD-R (12x), CD-RW (8x), DVD-RAM (2x), DVD-R (2x) and DVD-RW (2x). It can read CD-ROM (32x) and DVD-ROM (10x). Device has 4.8 Mbps data transfer rate and 95 milliseconds access time for CD, 13.8 Mbps and 100 milliseconds for DVD-ROM, 140 milliseconds for DVD- RAM. It also has 2 MB buffer. LG also is weighing adding DVD+RW recording capability to drive, format that has been championed by Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Philips and others. “If there’s a demand for it [DVD+RW], the factory can do it because they're looking to increase share,” Norell said.

CEA is creating Digital Visual Interface (DVI) working group to develop labeling guidelines and educate public about high- speed interface between DTV and other devices, it said. Working group will be similar to one for IEEE 1394 interface, CEA said. Group also will consider terminology and labeling for next- generation DVI, it said.

Mythic Entertainment said its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot entered first phase of beta testing in France, Germany, U.K.