Barry Willis

In the past three years, Chinese-made DVD players have flooded the market, bringing low-cost, high-quality video to millions of consumers. Their success has also brought millions of dollars to Chinese electronics manufacturers. Now those same manufacturers are being asked to pay their fair share for the technology that is making them rich.

Taiwanese and Chinese electronics makers hope to save billions in royalty fees by developing proprietary optical disc formats for the Chinese region, according to reports from Taipei in late May.

In the wake of a rash of horrendous school shootings, President Clinton has ordered a federal study of marketing strategies used to promote movies, music, and video games. The <A HREF="http://www.ftc.gov/">Federal Trade Commission</A> has been given a $1 million budget and 18 months to complete the study, which will be "designed to lift a veil on whether production companies deliberately use violent imagery and language to lure young consumers," according to a June 1 report by the <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/"><I>Washington Post</I></A>.

With the advent of DVD, the death of videotape has been widely predicted. Standard VHS may be going the way of the dinosaur, but tape is re-emerging as a format for high definition movies. Some folks are even predicting that DVD may be relegated to a "mid-fi format."