April 13/New York: Freelance Producers Network meeting at @@radical.media. Contact Becky Slattery, (212) 462-1500…. April 17-22/Las Vegas: NAB ’99: "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 3-5/San Francisco: @@d:tech, the Internet Marketing Conference & Expo. (800) 535-1812 or www.ad-tech.com….May 5: London: The 37th Annual British Design & Art Direction Awards. Info, 44 (171) 840-1111 or www.dandad.org…May 6/Miami: 6th Annual Anti Film Festival’s Animation Station. Contact Noreen Legault, (305) 674-9998….May 15-16/Minneapolis: AICP Commercial Production training seminars. Contact Jennifer Jacovsky, (212) 420-8900….May 17, 19 and 21/Dallas: AICP Commercial Production training seminars. Contact Jennifer Jacovsky, (212) 420-8900….June 10-15/Montreux, Switzerland: Montreux Symposium ’99 looking at the challenges arising from digital and HD technology. For info, call 41 (21) 963-3220 or email message@@symposia.ch….July 21/New York: 1999 ITS Annual Forum at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Contact Monica Mathis, (703) 319-0800….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…. August 8-13/Los Angeles: SIGGRAPH 99 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Info, call Sheila Hoffmeyer or Ann Kilhoffer, (312) 644-6610, fax: (312) 245-1083, or email media-s99@@siggraph.org….Sept. 24-27/New York: The 107th AES Convention at the Jacob K. Javits Center. Contact AES, (212) 661-8528 or www.aes.org….Oct. 21-23/Mumbai (Bombay), India: Broadcast India ’99 Exhibition & Symposium at the World Trade Centre. Info, (91-22) 215 1396, 215 2721 or www.saicom. com/broadcastindia….Nov. 19-22/New York: 141st SMPTE Technical Conference and Exhibition’s "Sprockets, Samples, and Satellites: Moving Images Into the Third Millennium," at the New York Marriott Marquis. Contact: Bryan Nella, (914) 761-1100 or Website www.smpte.org….
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