Data Filter.

What's Happening: SNOCAP, of San Francisco, Calif., has received a $10 million capital investment led by WaldenVC and Morgenthaler Ventures. The new company, founded by Shawn Fanning (founder of the original Napster), Jordan Mendelson and Ron Conway, offers an end-to-end process for online music licensing and copyright management. SNOCAP has developed a proprietary Content Identification Service (CIS) that uses audio fingerprinting technology licensed from Philips to identify, register and track music that is available for licensing, and allows labels and artists to set business rules for each track on a global basis. Universal has already begun submitting its entire catalog to SNOCAP, and industry buzz indicates that Sony BMG and EMI have also expressed interest. The service would also enable labels and artists to track live shows, bootlegs and out-of-print recordings traded on peer-to-peer networks, and potentially make money from these as well.

So What?: According to Fanning, "SNOCAP envisions a world where consumers can discover, share and purchase music from a massively deep, almost infinite catalog, constantly updated with new and old releases, live, out-of-print tracks, and more." SNOCAP's stated mission is to provide P2P networks and online retailers with a single clearinghouse to access the broadest possible selection of authorized digital music, allowing them to concentrate on providing compelling user experiences rather than trying to develop and maintain relationships with thousands of copyright holders. This will help existing online retailers grow, permit P2Ps to become authorized distribution channels and propel a new generation of innovative services to enter the market. Full platform deployment is slated for 2005. SNOCAP invites labels and artists to sign up and begin the registration process by visiting www.snocap.com.

What's Happening: Toshiba Corp. reports that it has received separate commitments of support from Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, New Line Cinema, and Warner Bros. Studios for the next-generation, high-definition DVD disc format, HD DVD. The DVD Forum has been working on the fine details of the HD DVD specifications for almost two years, including physical, file format and application specifications for recordable and ROM discs. The DVD Forum approved the version 1.0 physical specifications for HD DVD-ROM in February 2004, followed by version 1.0 of the HD DVD-Rewritable format in September 2004. Completion of the HD DVD-R, a one-time recordable format, is also expected by year end.

So What?: HD DVD is the newly developed high definition DVD disc standard developed by the DVD Forum, which represents more than 230 consumer electronics, information technology, and content companies. HD DVD innovations include higher resolution video and audio available on a suite of disc capacities adaptable for longer or shorter programs-along with advanced navigation, Web connectivity, and new consumer options. HD DVD supports such features as advanced content access and robust content security technology. A single, dual-layer HD DVD ROM disc, which has a 30-gigabyte capacity, can hold as much as eight hours of highquality, high definition movie content. HD DVD is based on the same physical disc structure as DVD, which secures easy backward compatibility with today's DVD, and enables manufacture of playback hardware and discs at a reasonable cost.

What's Happening: Gotuit Media Corp., of Andover, Mass., a provider of next generation video-on-demand products, has secured ...