Umm... Liquid doesn't own any patents. This is a folding of cards. You can search this blog and others for coverage. (They sold it all to Microsoft.) Gerry Kearby keeps his job. Keep your eye on the DRM. New York Times: Liquid Audio Gets a Buyer for Its Assets This deal looks eerily similar to Sony and Philips purchasing Intertrust, another digital rights managememt (DRM) pioneer that had nothing left but its technology and patents. Like it or not, the music industry is moving forward on digital distribution using strong DRM. Its first attempt was a standard, SDMI, which failed in the marketplace. The second wave is licensing content to MusicNet, PressPlay, and Listen.com, with mixed results. Don't be surprised if Liquid Audio and Intertrust's technology (with some RealNetworks and/or Microsoft DRM possibly mixed in) become the second coming of SDMI, this time with broad backing from industry. The consumer electronics vendors hate government mandates, but they will gladly adopt industry standard DRM that they don't think is too onerous on users. [Werblog]
 Kevin hits it on the head. This DRM thing has been bubbling up for a while. Liquid Audio had a perfectly viable distribution scheme all worked out - years before Napster - but because the music industry put all their cards into SDMI - MP3 happened. I was part of several efforts to inform Hollywood of MP3 and Liquid Audio and...........well thank you Mickey Kapp and David Weekley for helping - anyway.
Should be interesting to see how Wal-Mart will capitalize on Liquid Audio's technology. [Marc's Voice]
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