LATEST ADDITIONS

The old <I>Mission: Impossible</I> TV series always opened with the head of the spy team picking up his instructions on a miniature tape recorder stashed in an obscure place. An authoritative voice would give Mr. Phelps his instructions&mdash;always with the option of declining the assignment&mdash;and then announce that the tape would self-destruct, which it did with a burst of flame and a puff of smoke.

Last week, Gemstar International Group announced that its subsidiary, <A HREF="http://www.StarSight.com/">StarSight Telecast</A>, had filed a patent-infringement suit against <A HREF="http://www.tivo.com">TiVo</A> in Federal District Court, Northern District of California. According to Gemstar, the suit claims "that TiVo willfully infringed certain Gemstar intellectual property by virtue of TiVo's deployment, marketing, offers to sell, and sale of personalized video recorder devices containing an unlicensed interactive program guide." Gemstar, which markets VCR Plus+, says it is seeking an injunction and monetary damages.

One of the most cherished assumptions about a market economy is that competition drives down prices for goods and services. Widespread availability from numerous providers guarantees low prices, the conventional wisdom has it.

Home-theater fans who hope to add a DVD version of <I>Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace</I> to their collections when the videotape hits the streets in April will have a very long wait. Possibly as long as five years, according to publicity from <A HREF="http://www.lucasfilm.com/">Lucasfilm</A>, which says director George Lucas wants to do "something special" with the DVD release, a project he probably won't get to until 2005, after he has finished the next two chapters in the "prequel" series.