Washington - The Future of Music Coalition, a non-profit established to represent the rights of artists on digital music issues, has recruited artists including Wilco, Bright Eyes, DJ Spooky and Aimee Mann to contribute to "Rock the Net," a compilation album whose proceeds will go to support its lobbying efforts on Network Neutrality. "As musicians and entrepreneurs, we understand the importance of treating all websites equally -- from the busiest online music store to the smallest blog," reads a note on the Web page for the album, which is also currently offering a free stream. A CD version will also become available for purchase on July 29.

London - Independent digital music retailer 7digital.com said on Monday that it has seen sales for the first half of 2008 increase 300% from a year ago, driven by the new availability of DRM-free MP3 tracks from Warner Music, EMI and others. The company, which now claims to be the second-largest digital music retailer in the U.K., said site traffic has increased 130% since January. The 7digital.com store now offers around 80% of its 4 million-track catalog in the MP3 format.

Atlanta - NBA Digital, a partnership between the pro basketball league and Turner Broadcasting, said on Monday that it has named Bryan Perez as senior vice president and general manager. The former CEO of Live Nation's Global Digital unit, Perez will oversee NBA.com, WNBA.com, NBA TV, and the league's other broadband and mobile services.

San Antonio, Texas - AT&T (NYSE: T) announced on Monday that a number of top-selling artists will record exclusive tracks for a "Team USA" soundtrack for the U.S. Olympic Team, with proceeds from music downloads and ringtone sales to benefit the team. NBC will also feature excerpts from the songs and music videos from the album in its Olympic Games coverage. Contributing artists on the project include 3 Doors Down, Army of Me, Colbie Caillat, Sheryl Crow and Nelly.

New York - To promote its upcoming Batman sequel "Dark Knight," Warner Bros. has sponsored the production of a Web series based in a comic book store, Silicon Alley Insider reported. Warner reportedly ponied up $36,000 for the first five episodes of "Kyle Piccolo: Comic Shop Therapist" in the hopes of drawing comic book devotee viewers, who will see "Dark Knight" trailers at the beginning and end of each installment.

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) said on Monday that it has partnered with toymaker Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) to launch a version of "Scrabble" for the Facebook social network and Pogo.com. The official version of the game will compete, however, with "Scrabulous," a knock-off version that counts millions of users. CNET News.com points out that the official Scrabble game on Facebook outside the U.S. (licensed in those regions by Mattel) claims fewer than 4,000 daily users.

Shanghai, China - Chinese online game operator The9 Limited announced on Monday that it will establish a joint venture with Korean game developer T3 Entertainment -- creators of the "Audition" massively multiplayer online game -- to further strengthen their partnerships in the areas of game development and publishing. Through the joint venture, The9 will be more proactively involved in the development of "Audition 2" and other titles, both for China and other international markets.

Paris - The French government, which is preparing a law that would compel Internet service providers there to disconnect customers who repeatedly download music or other media on illicit file-sharing networks, has proposed a similar "three strikes" law for all of Europe, The Register reports.

New York - Landmark Communications announced that it has agreed to sell The Weather Channel to a group made up of NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and the private equity firms of The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources familiar with the deal said the price was "just under $3.5 billion," according to a report by Reuters.

Arlington, Va. - For the first time since 1978, there were no venture-backed initial public offerings (IPOs) during the second quarter, according to a new report from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

Washington - Searchles, the developer of a social search platform, said that it has landed a new round of angel funding to increase its total backing to nearly $2 million.

New York - Major label EMI has settled the ringtone royalty lawsuit it filed in January against mobile content distributor InfoSpace, MocoNews reported, citing an InfoSpace regulatory filing.

London - Major record label EMI announced on Monday that it has named Elio Leoni-Sceti, former executive vice president of Europe for consumer brand company Reckitt Benckiser, as its new chief executive of EMI Music. Entrepreneur Guy Hands, who has served as CEO since his private equity firm Terra Firma acquired EMI for $4.7 billion last May, will step back to become non-executive chairman of EMI.

San Francisco - ZVUE Corporation, a digital entertainment company whose assets include video site eBaum's World and portable media player maker HandHeld Entertainment, announced on Monday that it has reached an agreement with lender YA Global Investments, to which it owes $1.25 million plus interest.

Los Angeles - XPD Media, a start-up that is developing video games for multiple platforms, has raised over $2 million in its first round of financing, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing.

Mumbai, India - Ozone Media, an online advertising network in India, announced that it has received an undisclosed sum of first round funding from IDG Ventures India.

Berlin - GameDuell, an online skill games community in Germany that claims over 10 million members, announced that it has received a $17 million investment from Wellington Partners.