Los Angeles - Movie producer Avi Arad has optioned the rights to develop a movie based on "Mass Effect," the popular sci-fi game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS), Variety reported, citing confirmation by "numerous sources." Arad previously headed comic publisher Marvel's movie business ("X-Men," "Spider-Man") and now helms his own production company, which is currently working on an adaptation of the game "Lost Planet."

Ghent, Belgium - Netlog, a European online social network that counts over 35 million members, announced on Friday that it has opened its translation and localization capabilities to third-party developers. Netlog, which is part of Google's OpenSocial initiative, said its translation system allows "almost instant translation into 23 languages."

Tokyo - Japan has made its first arrest of an individual who uploaded a movie to a file-sharing network before its official release, and Kazushi Hirata now faces up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $96,000 for sharing the movie "Wanted" on Japan's Winny file-sharing network, according to reports.

Madrid - A Spanish court has ruled that a site offering links to download media files on third-party sites does not infringe on copyrights, TorrentFreak reported.

New York - Video game publisher Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) has decided to loosen the digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on its new game release, "Spore," after consumers complained the terms were too onerous and a pirated version of the game began to see heavy traffic on file-sharing networks, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Los Angeles - Video game publisher Activision (NASD: ATVI), which recently merged with media conglomerate Vivendi's Blizzard Entertainment, has filed a copyright infringement suit against a New York man alleged to have illegally copied and distributed its game titles, Edge Online reported. It is unclear whether the complaint relates to file-sharing on a peer-to-peer network, but Activision is seeking statutory damages of $30,000 to $150,000 for each alleged infringement made by defendant James R. Strickland.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), a trade group that represents webcasters and online retailers like Apple and Amazon, on Friday asked a federal court to rule that online retailers' use of 30-second music preview clips are "fair use," and not subject to royalty payments.

New York - The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) announced on Thursday that its total revenues in August decreased 8.8% compared with the same month a year ago, with advertising revenues down 14.1% and circulation revenues up 0.9%.

Mountain View, Calif. - Americans conducted 11.7 billion Internet searches in August, with Google (NASD: GOOG) extending its lead in the market by another 1.1% over Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), according to new figures released by comScore.

Silver Spring, Md. - 1worldspace, a provider of satellite radio services in foreign markets, said on Friday that it has been granted a 10-day extension to repay debt while it searches for new financing options.

Chicago - Video game publisher Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) announced on Friday that it has secured a factoring agreement with parent company National Amusements that will provide the company with up to $40 million to offset the cost of manufacturing its fall 2008 games lineup.

Austin, Texas - Challenge Games, a developer of online fantasy sports games including "Duels" and "Baseball Boss," announced that it has raised $10 million in its second round of venture capital financing, led by Globespan Capital Partners.

Over at Australian Anthill is a list of finalists for their Cool Company Awards 2008 – RedBubble, an online community and marketplace for creative works, caught my eye as I’ve been following their progress since they launched in Australia early last year. Visits to RedBubble have climbed steadily, increasing in market share by 97.8% comparing week ending 13 September 2008 against the same week last year. RedBubble ranked as the 2nd most visited website in the Hitwise Entertainment - Arts category for the week ending 13 September 2008, following the much longer established deviantART.