Los Angeles - The Mozilla Firefox Web browser, an open-source alternative to competitors such as Microsoft's (NASD: MSFT) Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or Apple's (NASD: AAPL) Safari, has now been downloaded over 500 million times, according to a note on SpreadFirefox.com. The browser passed 400 million downloads in September 2007. Firefox now commands about 17% of the browser market, and 28% of visitors to NYTimes.com in February were Firefox users, according the paper's Bits blog.

New York - Last.fm, the social music discovery service acquired by CBS (NYSE: CBS) last year for $280 million, announced on Friday that, since introducing free on-demand music streaming to its service last month, it has seen unique visitors grow 59% and page views jump 58%. The company's deal allows free streaming of songs from all four major labels and a number of independents. It now counts 21 million unique users each month, based on internal data. "We've created a new model that works for everyone -- listeners, artists and copyright holders -- and the user response proves that it is working," said Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel. "Free is the future, and this is signaled not only by the industry's growing acceptance of what we're doing, but more importantly, by the incredibly fast increase of users accessing music on Last.fm since we launched free-on-demand."

New York - LimeWire, the company behind the peer-to-peer file-sharing software that runs on the Gnutella network, announced that it has signed a deal with independent music distributor Redeye Distribution, to add 20,000 tracks from over 200 labels to the LimeWire Store. Other LimeWire Store content partners include Ingrooves, Nettwerk Productions and IRIS Distribution.

New York - IAC's (NASD: IACI) comedy video site CollegeHumor said on Friday that it will offer its original programming through Joost, the peer-to-peer based streaming TV service. CollegeHumor shows set for distribution through Joost include "The Michael Showalter Showalter," "Prank War" and "Street Fighter: The Later Years."

Washington - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced this week that it has sent another round of 401 "pre-litigation settlement letters" to users of campus networks at 12 universities alleged to have engaged in illegal file-sharing, making for a total of more than 5,400 such letters sent since the record label trade group began the practice a year ago.

London - The British government has threatened to enact legislation that would compel Internet service providers in the country to take actions to curb illegal file-sharing, if ISPs and entertainment industry interests cannot come up with voluntary policies by April 2009. "The prospect of legislation to ensure ISPs deal with illegal filesharing, and the proposals to beef up IP enforcement show that the government fully understands the importance of copyright to creators," said Geoff Taylor, CEO of the British Phonographic Institute (BPI), a record label trade group.

Los Angeles - Online retail giant Amazon.com is (NASD: AMZN) set to produce its first full-length motion picture, partnering with 20th Century Fox to adapt "The Stolen Child," a fantasy novel written by Keith Donahue, Variety reported.

Buffalo, N.Y. - As It Is Inc., an intellectual property holding and development company, announced that it has raised $3 million in venture capital, which represents 60% of its $5 million target.

Washington - Despite the recent slowdown in the U.S. economy, angel investors are optimistic about the climate for investments in early-stage companies during 2008, according to a new survey by the Angel Capital Association (ACA).

Seattle - RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) announced on Friday that it has acquired Trymedia Systems, a provider of digital distribution services for casual games, from Macrovision (NASD: MVSN) for $4 million.