05:25 PM Nov. 06, 1998 PT Liquid Audio has demanded that a music site remove all links to a utility that lets listeners get around its anti-copying technology. Liquid Audio sent Z Company -- operator of the MP3.com music site and the Filez.com search engine -- a cease and desist letter Monday, asking it to remove all links on its sites that point to a program called a2b2wav.zip or a2b2wav. Liquid Audio makes "player" software that lets users purchase, download, and listen to music on the Internet. The a2b2wav utility converts music stored in Liquid Audio's proprietary format into the unencrypted .wav format, which can be distributed and played far more easily. The letter also asks MP3.com to "block all Internet access to an article titled "Can Music Be Secure?", which points out a weakness in certain versions of Liquid Audio's products. MP3.com is one of the most popular sites for downloading music files. "The only purpose of the a2b2wav program is to promote music piracy," wrote Liquid Audio. The letter also said the software gets around the copy protection features in the player by "making unauthorized modifications to Liquid Audio's copyrighted software." "We have been asked to pursue those currently violating the company's intellectual-property rights," wrote Dave Kramer, an attorney at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, in the letter on behalf of Liquid Audio. Kramer would not comment beyond the letter. Executives at Liquid Audio could not be reached for comment, but a spokeswoman confirmed that the company did send the letter. "We found that request troubling and overreaching on their part," said Brad Biddle, an attorney at the firm Cooley Godward LLP, which is representing MP3.com. "Clearly there are First Amendment issues, and there is no chance we will remove the article." Biddle said no changes would be made in the search engine. The brewing legal battle between the companies is part of larger hand wringing by the music industry over the online distribution of music. While the record companies recognize they will eventually have to sell music online, they are vigorously fighting the MP3 audio format, which compresses audio files for easier transmission over the Internet. The MP3 format can rival CDs in sound quality. Groups like the Recording Industry Association of America are rejecting it because it lets listeners easily distribute songs without paying royalties. Biddle said Liquid Audio's claim could be made in light of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was signed into law in late October. The law makes it illegal to circumvent high-technology anti-piracy protections. It also prohibits the manufacture, import, sale, or distribution of devices that defeat protective measures. Biddle said that while it was Liquid Audio's right to ask sites hosting the file to remove it, it was not their right to attack links to the file. "Is that really what Congress intended -- to put this incredible burden on these search engines that link to these devices?" he said. "Clearly that's not what the underlying intent of the law is." HotBot has a marketing relationship with Z Company. Wired Digital owns both Wired News and HotBot. NEW YORK, May 3, 1999 — Liquid Audio, Inc., a leading provider of Internet software and services for digital music distribution, and RealNetworks™, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK), the recognized leader in the streaming media market, today announced they have teamed up to add Liquid Audio's music e-commerce capabilities to the new RealSystem MP™ digital music architecture. Music fans using RealJukebox™ will be able to more securely purchase and download CD-quality Liquid™ Tracks and store and organize them alongside RealAudio® G2 music, MP3 and other tracks using RealJukebox. To provide these capabilities to RealNetworks millions of online users, Liquid Audio and RealNetworks plan to deliver a freely-downloadable Liquid Plug-in for RealSystem MP. The Liquid Plug-in software will provide high quality audio, security, copyright management and rights reporting elements of the Liquid Player software right from RealJukebox. Using RealJukebox, music fans will be able to access the wealth of CD-quality music from 250 labels currently using Liquid Audio to digitally-deliver music to Internet users. "Liquid Audio offers the digital music distribution services and software that make it easy for artists, labels and retailers to quickly and easily promote and sell secure digital music to millions of consumers on the Internet," said Gerry Kearby, chief executive officer at Liquid Audio. "By expanding our relationship and making RealSystem MP interoperate with our secure music solutions, Liquid Audio and RealNetworks can offer the large installed base of RealPlayer users access to the more than 300,000 Liquid Tracks by more than 15,000 artists available on the Net today." "We are very happy to team with Liquid Audio to extend the capability of RealSystem MP, which gives consumers an easy way to create and manage high-quality digital audio music, while protecting the intellectual property rights of artist and labels," said Alex Alben, vice president, Music Group, RealNetworks, Inc. "By integrating the Liquid Audio secure plug-in with RealSystem MP, we can greatly enhance the variety of music available to our users and help accelerate the legitimate market for music downloads." RealSystem MP is an open and extensible digital music platform providing content owners a more secure method for transmitting, storing and playing back music content. RealJukebox, also announced today, which turns Internet PCs into the best way to experience music, is built on RealSystem MP. The beta release of RealJukebox is available for a free download from http://www.real/products/realjukebox/index.html. Liquid Audio is a 'format neutral' distribution system that harnesses the open architecture of the Liquid System to distribute digital music in many leading formats to many leading music players. Supported music formats include Dolby Digital AC-3 and AAC, and soon, MP3. Supported players include: Liquid Player, and soon, RealNetworks RealPlayer G2 and RealJukebox, the large installed base of MP3 players, and Diamond Multimedia's Rio. This open architecture will also enable Liquid System products to be compliant with the standards being set by the Record Industry Association of America's Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). RealJukebox is the first digital music product that gives music fans everything they need to build, play and manage a digital music collection. RealJukebox turns an Internet PC into the best way to experience music. RealJukebox records, plays and organizes a personal CD collection-easily and conveniently on a PC. It also leverages the power of the Internet to look up album/artist/song information to build and expand a music library. The product helps users find and download free or purchased music-including Liquid Tracks, MP3 and RealAudio G2-or purchase CDs on-line to add to a digital music collection. Built on the RealSystem MP, RealJukebox offers a broad spectrum of consumer options for music formats and portable playback devices. The beta release of RealJukebox is available for a free download from http://www.realnetworks.com/products/realjukebox/index.html. REDMOND, Wash., and REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Jan. 24, 2000 - Microsoft Corp. Nasdaq "MSFT") and Liquid Audio Inc. (Nasdaq "LQID") today announced they are working together to add support for Microsoft® Windows MediaTM Technologies to Liquid Audio's open, multiformat music distribution system and services. These efforts respond to the growing demand for Windows Media among consumers and the music industry, and reinforce Liquid Audio's commitment to offering a wide range of music delivery technologies in its distribution system. The companies are working together to add support for Windows Media in the following areas: Liquid Audio plans to encode and distribute the LiquidTM Catalog of more than 50,000 downloadable songs and 1 million music previews in Windows Media format. Liquid Audio will deploy Windows Media-based servers in its data centers to host and distribute Windows Media-formatted content to the hundreds of retailers in the Liquid Music Network. This will provide content owners with one of the broadest choices of music distribution formats in the industry. Liquid Audio will establish and operate clearinghouse functions for Windows Media digital rights management (DRM) as part of Liquid Audio's existing rights management and reporting services. The companies will add support for Windows Media to LiquidTM Player software, allowing users to access the wide range of content available in the Windows Media format. "Liquid Audio software and services simplify the user experience by bridging many music delivery technologies to make it easy for artists, labels and retailers to promote and sell secure digital music to consumers online," said Gerry Kearby, chief executive officer of Liquid Audio. "By expanding the range of media formats we support in our open system to include the high-quality Windows Media format and DRM technology, Liquid Audio can provide customers with increased flexibility and choice for digital music distribution." "Today's breakthrough announcement with digital music pioneer Liquid Audio is a strong validation of how delivering Windows Media as an open digital media platform is a win for the entire industry," said Anthony Bay, vice president of the Digital Media Division at Microsoft. "Working with Liquid Audio is a major step in bringing digital media mainstream." "This new agreement between Microsoft and Liquid Audio is extremely significant because it provides consumers with a much easier downloading, purchasing and listening experience, while enabling BMG to include our many retail partners," said Kevin Conroy, senior vice president, Worldwide Marketing & New Technology, BMG Entertainment. "BMG remains committed to providing music fans with the highest-quality digital downloads available on the Internet today, while ensuring that our artists' music is protected." Liquid Audio plans to deploy Windows Media-based servers over the next few months to host and distribute content in the Windows Media format via retail Web sites. The companies plan to fully integrate Windows Media Technologies into Liquid Audio's encoding, hosting, distribution, clearinghouse and music preview services over the next year. Liquid Audio plans to deliver support for Windows Media in the next major upgrade of the Liquid Player. Liquid Audio touts BMG songs By Jim Hu Staff Writer March 11, 2002, 8:15 AM PT Digital rights management company Liquid Audio has signed a deal to provide secure downloading services for BMG Entertainment, the recording division of German media giant Bertelsmann. The agreement allows Liquid Audio to offer encoding, hosting and digital rights management for BMG recordings. BMG will make 3,500 songs available for download in Liquid Audio and Windows Media formats. The songs will be available through Liquid Audio's retail and Web partners. Liquid Audio sues over tracking patent By Gwendolyn Mariano Staff Writer July 2, 2002, 1:05 PM PT Liquid Audio said Tuesday that it has sued geo-targeting company InfoSplit, alleging the company is using without a license its patented technology for restricting digital delivery to certain areas. Redwood City, Calif.-based Liquid Audio said the suit, filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks an injunction along with treble damages, or roughly three times estimated losses, and attorney's fees for willful infringement. Liquid Audio said it uses the patented technology in its music business to determine the geographic location of an Internet user. If a major label, for instance, wants to make a song available for download only in the United States, the technology can determine whether someone is attempting to download the music in Europe. "We've invested significant time and resources to develop and implement our secure distribution technology," Gerry Kearby, chief executive of Liquid Audio, said in a statement. "We intend to enforce our patents and protect our technology to the full extent of the law." According to the suit, Liquid Audio is the sole assignee of a patent titled "Territorial Determination of Remote Computer Location in a Wide Area Network for Conditional Delivery of Digitized Products," issued in November 2000. The company provides software that helps control copying and transfers of songs to portable devices. New York-based InfoSplit contested the lawsuit, saying its technology is different from Liquid Audio's geographic filtering system for music distribution. InfoSplit said it offers an IP (Internet Protocol) mapping catalog similar to the yellow pages. But instead of listing every business with a telephone number, InfoSplit's catalog lists every IP address with a geographic location. "There is no infringement as far as we are concerned," InfoSplit CEO Cyril Houri said. "We offer the yellow pages; (Liquid Audio) offers the 4-1-1 service...(that) is a one-to-one relationship with the user. We don't deal with end users; we build with this index." InfoSplit said its technology was developed in early 1999. The company was founded in October of that year. It sells its catalog to companies in online industries including advertising, gambling, video delivery, digital rights management and payment security. The lawsuit comes three weeks after Alliance Entertainment unveiled plans to acquire Liquid Audio. Shareholders have been struggling over control of the online music company. Among other things, investors have complained that the company's market value is less than the amount of cash it has on hand. In May, one dissident shareholder called on Liquid Audio to put itself up for sale after the company reported revenue of just $135,000 for the first quarter of the year and a loss of $4.9 million. Despite its financial woes, Liquid Audio continues to capture powerful allies. It recently struck licensing deals with BMG Entertainment, Universal Music Group and an EMI division. The company distributes digital music through retailers including Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, CDNow, Sam Goody, Barnes & Noble and Sony Music Club. office November 11, 2002 Liquid Audio Merger Falls Apart By Ryan Naraine A significant percentage of Liquid Audio (Quote, Company Info) successfully derailed plans for the company to merge with privately-held Alliance Entertainment. Liquid Audio, a digital media software firm based in Redwood City, Calif., announced the scrapping of the all-stock merger in a brief statement Monday but provided no details about its next move. "The management of both companies still supports the strategic aspects of the merger. However, a significant percentage of Liquid Audio stockholders have publicly expressed opposition to the proposed merger and the companies believe that the termination is in the best interests of both parties," Liquid Audio said. The scrapping of the deal, which was already amended in July to give Alliance Entertainment a bigger stake of the combined firm, means Liquid Audio is back on the block with shareholders pushing for an outright sale instead of a stock-for-stock merger. Terms of the original merger called for Liquid Audio to issue about 46.2 million new shares to Alliance, which would own a 67 percent majority stake in the new entity (the amended deal upped this stake to around 75 percent). Liquid Audio planned to all outstanding stock options and warrants to purchase shares of Alliance Entertainment and take a 33 percent ownership stake. The deal was meant to give Liquid Audio a physical outlet to hawk its music delivery platform software and entertainment media products. Alliance Entertainment distributes media products and accessories -- like CDs, DVDs, VHS movies and video games. The saga of Liquid Audio and management's disagreements with shareholders has been well chronicled. Earlier this year, minority owner Josh Schechter of Steel Partners II wrote a scathing letter to Liquid Audio's board, demanding the company be sold to the highest bidder because of its "pathetic performance." "If the company truly has valuable technology, prove us wrong and sell it immediately to the highest bidder and distribute all of the cash to shareholders," Schechter said, pointing to the disappointing $135,000 of revenue during the first quarter. Steel Partners had offered to buy the company outright for $2.75 per share but Liquid Audio's board found the offer "inadequate." Then, Liquid Audio's management opted to merge with Coral Springs, Fla.-based Alliance Entertainment, as a last-ditch push for survival, gambling on the physical distribution channels to prop up faltering sales. Liquid Audio CEO Gerald Kearby said the company held discussions with "numerous potential partners over the last year" and settled on the merger with Alliance because it offered the most significant return of value stockholders. Shareholders, by voting against the deal, disagreed and industry watchers expect Liquid's management to be further pressured to sell the company in its entirety or face liquidation. In September, software giant Microsoft acquired Liquid Audio's patents in a $7 million cash transaction. Microsoft (Quote, Company Info) gobbled up the foreign and domestic patents, including digital rights management (DRM) technology, technology for secure content transfer to portable devices, and technology which will allow it to honor territorial restrictions for digital music content. In addition to the cash consideration, Microsoft granted Liquid Audio a royalty-free license to continue to use its digital distribution system. Liquid Audio to evaporate By Jim Hu Staff Writer, CNET News.com December 6, 2002, 7:49 AM PT Liquid Audio's board of directors has voted unanimously to dissolve the company and distribute its cash reserves to shareholders. Under the decision announced Friday, shareholders will receive $2.50 per share on Dec. 20. Payments will only be made to shareholders of record as of Dec. 10. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company will continue operations until the board considers all options for its assets. The distribution of assets ends a protracted battle over the future of the online music technology company. It now appears that dissident shareholders have succeeded in their push to liquidate the company, as opposed to selling it to Alliance Entertainment. Signs of the Liquid's demise became apparent last month when CEO Gerald Kearby resigned shortly after the company pulled out of its proposed merger with Alliance. Liquid produces software that prevents digital song files from being distributed illegally. Although the company was lauded by the recording industry for its copy protection technology, it could not compete with free file-swapping software such as Kazaa, Morpheus and the now-defunct Napster. Liquid also was unable to offer enough songs for people to purchase due to the recording industry's slower pace of releasing digitally encoded versions of their copyrighted songs. In September, Liquid sold its digital encoding patents to Microsoft for $7 million. December 06, 2002 Liquid Audio evaporates Following the recent resignation of CEO and founder Gerry Kearby, and the failure of a proposed merger with CD/DVD distributor Alliance Entertainment, Liquid Audio is throwing in the towel. The best part of their announcement comes at the end. Liquid Audio, Inc. is a leading provider of software, infrastructure and services for the secure digital delivery of media over the Internet. The Liquid Audio solution gives content owners, Web sites and companies the ability to publish, syndicate and securely sell digital media online with copy protection and copyright management. Using the Liquid Player software, available for free download at www.liquidaudio.com, consumers can preview and purchase downloadable music from hundreds of affiliate Web sites in the Liquid Music Network. Makes you wonder how they lasted this long, eh? At it’s peak in Nov ‘99, Liquid Audio had a market capitalization of over $1 billion. On 10/22, an investor had offered to buy Liquid Audio for $3 per share — just shy of $68 million. Now, shareholders will receive a disbursement of $2.50 per share. And the major labels sing, “Another one bites the dust-uh.” REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan. 24 2003/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Liquid Audio, Inc. (Nasdaq: LQID - News) today announced that it has sold its digital music fulfillment business to Geneva Media, LLC, an affiliate of Anderson Merchandisers, LP for $3,200,000. Liquid Audio has also transferred ownership of "Liquid Audio" related trademarks to Geneva. Liquid Audio, Inc. (Nasdaq: LQID - News) was formed in 1996 and provided record labels, artists and retail websites the software, infrastructure and services for the secure digital delivery of media over the Internet. Today, the company is pursuing a dissolution while exploring dispositions of its remaining assets All combiled April 2003 - Liquid audio is still going right now, althrough not doing very well :-). Its customers have mostly moved to Windows Media DRM. a2b2wav appears to have completly vanished, I am unable to find it anywhere.