Los Angeles - Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ESPN plans to launch a new action sports broadband network in the fall, comprised of a grouping of sites dedicated to various sports like skateboarding, motocross and surfing, the Los Angeles Times reported. The ESPN Action Sports Network will also offer original digital programming, and content from partners such as Surfline.com, Vans.com and Active Ride Shop, as well as encourage users to post their own sports videos. "We felt like we were under-delivering on a year-round basis," Dave Finger, director of action sports for ESPN Digital Media, told the Times. "We felt like we were missing out on covering action sports with the same voice and authenticity that we bring to stick and ball."

Austin, Texas - As a promotion for its massively multiplayer online game "Tabula Rasa," which explores the destruction of Earth, developer NCsoft has announced that it will send a time capsule with the digitized DNA of select video game players and others into space. "Operation Immortality" will see game designer Richard Garriott take the capsule with him when he travels to the International Space Station in October 2008. "I'm thrilled we can offer the once in a lifetime chance to millions of gamers to virtually go to space with me," said Garriott. "A select few will have their DNA digitized and sent. And, theoretically, if anything happens to the human race, it could be their DNA that is used to resurrect humanity."

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV on Wednesday announced that Panic At The Disco and Dashboard Confessional will headline its "Rock Band Live" tour, a fall promotional tour for its "Rock Band" video game from Harmonix. The tour will also feature performances from "Rock Band" bands, who will compete for the chance to play on the main stage in between the headline acts' sets in each of the 28 cities on the tour schedule. MTV has secured Hot Topic and Pepsi Stuff as sponsors for the tour.

London - Universal Music Catalog on Wednesday announced the launch of Lost Tunes, a new U.K. MP3 download store that aims to promote the major label's deeper catalog fare. Powered by independent retailer 7digital, the store at launch offers 134 albums, and will add some 500 more by year's end. The store will mine tracks from Universal's Trojan, Fiction, Decca Verve, A&M, Motown and Stax labels, among others, and offer a range of exclusive downloads. Currently featured on the store are albums from Link Wray, Nick Drake, Jimmy Cliff and Lightnin' Hopkins.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Nickelodeon children's network announced on Wednesday that it has added a number of classic programs from its library to Apple's iTunes Store for purchase and download, including "The Amanda Show," "Rugrats," "As Told By Ginger," "Hey Dude," "Rocket Power" and "Clarissa Explains It All." In addition to individual episodes, several full seasons and "best of" volumes will be available from $8.99 to $19.99.

New York - Ludlum Entertainment announced on Wednesday that it has re-acquired the rights to develop and publish video games based on the late author Robert Ludlum's works, including the Bourne and Covert One series. The rights had previously been sold to Vivendi Games (now Activision Blizzard), whose Sierra unit published "The Bourne Conspiracy" for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 last month. "The international success of Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy coupled with continued, dramatic changes in the gaming industry enable Ludlum Entertainment to develop new partnerships capable of fully exploiting the multi-platform potential of the Ludlum content and storylines," the company said.

New York - Following an unsuccessful foray into the MP3 player market in 2003, Dell (NASD: DELL) is planning to release a new line of portable digital music players and an accompanying subscription service as early as September, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Tokyo - Japanese video game developer Nintendo has announced that sales for its recent quarter were up 34% from a year ago, to $993 million, while net sales were up 24%, to $3.91 billion.

Dulles, Va. - The CEO of Earthlink (NASD: ELNK) told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that his company is contemplating a possible bid for the dial-up Internet business of AOL.

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) claims that malicious hackers were behind the inability to access its official "Scrabble" online game on the Facebook social network, which was downed yesterday and still unavailable on Wednesday morning, according to reports.

Milan - Italian broadcaster Mediaset announced on Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit against Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube, seeking at least $779 million in damages for illicit use of its audio and video content. The company, which is controlled by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said that a survey of YouTube on June 10 found 4,643 clips of its programming on the site -- which it estimated was the equivalent of over 315,000 lost broadcasting days.

Los Angeles - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced that it has filed lawsuits in federal court in Los Angeles against FOMDB.com and MovieRumor.com, two websites the movie studio trade group alleges are facilitating copyright infringement by "identifying, posting, organizing, and indexing links to infringing content found on the Internet that consumers can then view on-demand." The sites aren't accused of hosting any copyrighted content themselves, but merely of organizing links to where such content may be found on third-party sites.

San Francisco - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) has announced that it will provide refunds to any consumers who purchased songs locked by digital rights management (DRM), which otherwise would have eventually become unplayable after the company discontinues support for the technology. Yahoo had initially not offered any compensation to patrons of its Yahoo Music Unlimited service who purchased song downloads; had they needed to reauthorize the tracks on a new computer, for instance, they would have found the songs unplayable.

New Hope, Penn. - MyYearbook.com, a social network targeting the teen demographic, announced on Wednesday that it has secured a $13 million second round of financing, led by Norwest Venture Partners.

New York - Clickable, an online advertising start-up, announced on Wednesday that it has closed a $14.5 million second round of financing, led by Founders Fund with participation from previous backers Union Square Ventures and FirstMark Capital.

Marina del Rey, Calif. - Six Degrees Games, the developer of a casual virtual world for tweens, has raised $7 million in venture capital, socalTECH reported, citing the PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA MoneyTree Q2 report.