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Hollywood to Seattle: We said no copies!

Once again reminding the public that Hollywood will go to great lengths to fight piracy, six movie studios are suing Seattle-based digital media company RealNetworks over new software that allows people to make digital copies of their DVDs. Studios see the software as a threat to payment for digital downloads, a crucial yet still experimenting market. In legal filings, studios claim the software violates the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it bypasses the anticopying mechanism built into DVDs.

From the New York Times:

“RealDVD should be called StealDVD,” Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the Motion Picture Association of America, said. “RealNetworks knows its product violates the law, and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America’s moviemakers and the technology community.”

South fumes over continued gas shortage

Southerners continue to wait in lines up to a half hour long to fill up their tanks as a gas shortage continues in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. AAA says the trouble could end as soon as next Monday, but high prices of around $4 a gallon could continue into mid-October according to the New York Times. The situation has a wide-spread effect, from prolonging out-of-town visits to calling off college football.

From New York Times:

Both supply and demand are perpetuating the shortage. Refinery damage and power failures in Texas created the conditions, said Brandon Wright, a spokesman for the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, but drivers contributed by refueling more often than necessary.

Revenge, rather than stopping the bleeding

Dr. Richard Peterson, a founder of MarketPsych, a hedge fund that makes investments based on neuro-economic research, just happened to be in our studios when news broke that the House had voted down the financial bailout bill.

Peterson, who is also a practicing psychiatrist, told Marketplace Money Host Tess Vigeland that Americans and congressional representatives were more concerned about exacting revenge than taking action that would set the financial markets on the road to recovery.

Here’s a portion of his interview with Tess.

More from that interview will be on Marketplace Money this weekend.

Maybe $10 million will help you lighten up

When it comes to creating new forms of lighting, the Department of Energy is passing the buck. For those savvy with light bulbs, the L Prize (or “lighting prize”) offers $10 million to a company that can create a viable solid-state LED replacement for the 60-watt bulb. The competition also requires the bulb to produce light equivalent to the standard wattage, but use less than 10 watts and last longer than 25,000 hours, which is the equivalent of over 17 years. But once that’s achieved we’ll all be saving money.

Delta, Northwest shareholders voting today on joining together

We could see the birth of the world’s biggest airline, even though we are in the midst of this global financial crisis. The Associated Press is reporting that Northwest shareholders approved combining the two carriers can be combined today, and Delta shareholders are expected to vote later today. An air travel expert says a merger should improve the experience for passengers.

Today, shareholders of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines will vote on combining the carriers. The new airline would keep the Delta name and its Atlanta headquarters. But first, approval must come from U.S. regulators and a federal lawsuit trying to block the deal needs to be resolved.

Start your engines -- with a cell phone

Japan has a new mobile phone that can automatically open your car door and start the engine. Just point and click. It was developed jointly by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., NTT DOCOMO, INC. and Sharp Corporation. It works with Nissan’s Intelligent Key system, which has been installed in 950,000 vehicles since 2002. That system would be activated by the new phone via the Japanese mobile network NTT DoCoMo Inc.

The three companies announced in a joint press release that they will demonstrate the new phone at the CEATEC Japan 2008 conference, which begins Sept. 30. They hope to have the phone available in early 2009.

Goldman Sachs gets big boost from Buffett

If stocks go up this morning after two days of triple digit declines, it might be thanks in part to the Oracle of Omaha.

Warren Buffett announced late yesterday that he was buying a $5 billion dollar stake in Goldman Sachs, the giant Wall Street firm that is transforming itself into a commercial bank. It’s a huge boost for the investment bank and its shares went way up in electronic trading.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway corporation will pick up $5 billion of Goldman’s preferred stock. It also has warrants to buy another $5 billion in Goldman Sachs common stock.

In a Wall Street Journal article about the move, Davy Stockbrokers strategist Barry Dixon says, “Buffett is still regarded as one of the canniest investors in the industry, and his investment is seen as a sign that valuations could be close to the bottom.”

More victims of the Wall Street crisis

The Wall Street fallout news now includes charities, museums, colleges and other institutions that have relied on the largess of Wall Street’s big firms to help fund their operations, programs and endowments.

A story in the Wall Street Journal Monday said, “The failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and pain at other big firms threaten to cut into the corporate and individual donations that more than a million nonprofit organizations rely on for basic operations and charitable programs.” The paper quotes Gordon J. Campbell, president and chief executive of the United Way of New York City, saying, “There will be fewer dollars coming in the doors.”

The blog miners over at mediabistro.com caught a story on Artnet with the grim news that Lehman was selling its art-collecting unit and gives a long list of well-known museums — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOCA in Los Angeles and the Art Institute of Chicago among them — as Lehman beneficiaries now facing a funding gap.

ABC News reported on its Web site that most colleges and universities have diversified their endowment investments enough to protect them and even see them make a profit in hard times. But because endowments rely on donations, they are expected to take a hit.

Even New York City hotels are going to suffer. Business Travel News Online reports that the crisis on Wall Street is “is almost certain to deal a blow to a hotel demand that has seemed an invincible juggernaut in recent years.”

But there is one kind of institution seeing better business because of Wall Street’s troubles — the church. Reuters says religious leaders in the neighborhood are seeing increased attendance at lunchtime meetings.

An Emmy's theme

Retro advertising is paying off for cable channel AMC. Its series “Mad Men” made history by becoming the first basic-cable show to win an Emmy for best drama. The series centers on an ad agency in the 1960s.

NBC comedy “30 Rock” got some free advertising at the awards. 30 Rock creator and star Tina Fey used an acceptance speech to beg for more viewers. She quipped the show is available online, on phones, on planes… and occasionally on actual television.

What's your opinion on the bailout?

We’ve been hearing a lot from the bureaucrats, politicians and pundits about the U.S. government’s plan to restore confidence in the financial system by rescuing banks from tons of bad debt. We’d like to get your opinions and hear how you’re being affected. Your thoughts and experiences often shape our coverage. You can submit your comments to our Public Insight Network, post them here, or on any of our stories pertaining to the crisis.

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