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"I look forward to continued close collaboration with Sony to make networked digital media a reality for hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide."
——Rob Glaser, RealNetworks

SONY GETS REAL... AGAIN

"Extended" Alliance Plans Digital Distribution to Designated Doodads, or Something
What’s that, Lassie? You say Sony Corporation and RealNetworks have struck a strategic alliance? Gosh, we’d better wake the townsfolk!

Wait a minute—didn’t these two companies already strike a strategic alliance, back in 2000? I seem to remember reading about it somewhere.

Anyway, this "extension" of the two firms’ strategic alliance is all about working together on digital distribution and stuff. You know, like the further integration of Sony’s ATRAC3 compression format and the introduction of its OpenMG copyright-protection technology into Real products. Much hoo-hah was made, when the two companies pacted in 2000, about the adoption of ATRAC3 into Real’s latest audio player. Much hoo-hah will be made now, too, and millions of people will carry on ripping, uploading and downloading MP3s.

The two tech giants will also work on projects like distributing digital content via Real software in Sony gizmos like PlayStation2 and networked CE devices. There’s probably other stuff that they haven’t figured out yet. You can tell that from the way the announcement says, "Both companies are committed to working together to deploy easy-to-use solutions that will encourage the expansion of digital distribution business opportunities."

Also, Sony’s taking an approximately1% stake in Real.

"The alliance being announced today is an important step forward in what has already been a long-standing and fruitful relationship with Sony Corporation," proclaimed Real top banana Rob Glaser. "I look forward to continued close collaboration with Sony to make networked digital media a reality for hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide. And in the meantime, we have our shared, white-hot, unquenchable hatred of Microsoft to sustain us."

"With the power of RealNetworks’ distribution software and its technical expertise, we are confident that this agreement will help make Sony’s ATRAC3 and OpenMG an industry standard for digital content distribution," effused Sony Corp. President/COO Kunitake Ando. "And may I add, die, Microsoft, die."

Coincidentally, Real is the technology partner in MusicNet, which is supposedly the rival of Sony/Vivendi Universal-backed Pressplay.

But it’s all copacetic, yah? Damn, this is fine weed.

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