28/Miami: 16th Miami Film Festival at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets, (305) 372-0925/358-5885….Feb. 27-28/Minneapolis: AICP Commercial Production Training Seminar. Info, call Jennifer Jacovsky, (212) 475-2600….March 1: Deadline for entries to the 32nd Annual U.S. International Film and Video Festival. Entry kits and info, (630) 834-7773 or www.filmfestawards.com….March 4-5/ Beverly Hills, Calif.: Broadcast Producers Conference. For tickets, (415) 434-8848A.March 4-6/New York: Aaron Davis Halls Harlem Film Festival presents Creatively Speaking: Visions of New Filmmakers. Contact Pauline Barfield, (212) 736-0404 or Angela Perry, (212) 650-5993A. March 5: Deadline for entries to the 20th Annual Telly Awards. Info, entry forms, call (513) 421-1938….March 9/New York: Freelance Producers Network meeting at Hot Wax Recording. Contact Diane Huber, (212) 604-9700AMarch 31: Deadline for entries to the International CINDY Competition. Info, entry forms, contact Sheemon Wolfe, (619) 461-1600, or www.cindys. com…. April 1: Deadline for entries to the 4th Annual West Palm Beach Independent Film Festival. Info, call (516) 802-3029 or www.wpbiff.org….April 17-22/Las Vegas: NAB A99: The Convergence Marketplace. Info, (202) 429-5419 or www.nab. org/conventions/nab99/….April 25-27/Carlsbad, Calif.: The First Annual Entertech Conference on new technologies and issues shaping entertainment production, postproduction, marketing and distribution. For details, (877) 223-9753….May 5: London: The 37th Annual British Design & Art Direction Awards. Info, 44 (171) 840-1111 or www.dandad. org…June 10-15/Montreux, Switzerland: Montreux Symposium 99. For info, call 41 (21) 963-3220 or e-mail message@symposia. ch….July 13-19/Sydney, Australia: SMPTE 99 Conference at the Darling Harbour Exhibition and Convention Center. Info, 61 (2) 99.77.08.88 or www.exevents.com.au….
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More