A recent study by iSuppli/Stanford Resources indicated that the demand for LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panels were significantly lower than expected in the first half of 2004.  Hence, prices are expected to fall for 17 and 19 inch LCD TV panels based on TFT (Thin Film Technology).  The oversupply in Q2 alone was estimated at 6.4 percent, due to the lower demand and a higher supply, and is expected to continue through Q3, when 8 new LCD fabs begin production.

The biggest world producers of LCD displays are South Korea's Samsung (SSNGY:NQB) and LG.Philips (LGL:NYSE), a 50-50 JV between South Korea's LG Electronics and Holland's Philips Electronics that made its IPO recently in July. 

The veridict was in and the movie industry lost its case against file-sharing apps.  A federal appeals court (the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) held that two popular file-sharing programs (made by Grokster and StreamCast Networks) are not legally responsible for the way these applications are utilized by end-users, for purposes such as swapping sound tracks, movies and other copyrighted material. 

One possible implication of this ruling might be that movie studios might now take a more costly and impopular approach of suing individual user copyright infringments, following the lead of the recording companies (which already have sued more than 3,400 users with at least 600 of those cases being settled for about $3,000 each).

Judge Sidney Thomas proved to understand the underlying issue in this case, which was technology.  Unlike Napster, which relied on central servers pointing users to copyrighted material, Grokster and Morpheus use peer-to-peer technology.  His quote was: "In the context of this case, the software design is of great import".   

The three-judge panel ruled that the two software companies offer programs that allow individual users to share information over the Internet, and as such cannot be held liable if some of the information being shared by the users happens to be copyrighted.  Thomas' statement also shows that peer-to-peer (P2P) technology can have many other uses:

"The technology has numerous other uses, significantly reducing the distribution costs of public domain and permissively shared art and speech, as well as reducing the centralized control of that distribution."

Bottom line is: this is a victory for the consumers.  If the movie industry wants to pursue a litigious path, it always has the option of going after individual users.  The movie industry survived the blow of losing the previous landmark case with Sony Beta (that legal precedent was actually used in this case).  But if this ruling would have gone against StreamCast and Grokster, a lot of innovative P2P innovative products would have been halted and/or potentially killed and technology would have been the loser.