Washington - Online social network Facebook has hired high-profile DC lawyer Ted Ullyot as its vice president and general counsel, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ullyt, a former White House lawyer in the Bush administration who helped coordinate the response to the investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, will join Facebook next month. He also has served as the chief of staff to former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as well as vice president and associate general counsel at AOL Time Warner. He currently serves as a partner at law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

Los Angeles - Nine Inch Nails, the Trent Reznor-fronted industrial rock band that has recently experimented with alternative distribution models of its albums, has partnered with Tapulous, creators of the iPhone game "Tap Tap Revenge," to release a NIN-themed premium version of the game featuring the band's music, TechCrunch reports. Set for release next month, the NIN version of the Guitar Hero-like mobile game will include over a dozen songs from the band's last two albums.

Round Rock, Texas - PC maker Dell (NASD: DELL) on Tuesday announced a deal with Paramount Digital Entertainment (NYSE: VIA) that will see a copy of the movie "Iron Man" pre-installed as an option on newly purchased computers. For an extra $20, consumers can order a special digital edition of "Iron Man" with a bonus featurette that will come pre-loaded on select Inspiron, Dell Studio and XPS laptops and desktops.

Washington - National Public Radio (NPR) on Tuesday announced the beta launch of new online community features, which let users create profile pages, and comment on NPR stories. "NPR is late to this game, to be blunt," said NPR editorial director for digital media Dick Meyer. "NPR has been cautious because we want to do it right; we want the comments and the conversations to be useful, friendly and civil; we want NPR employees to participate and talk about their work. We needed the right tools and the right philosophy to come together."

London - We7, a U.K.-based, ad-supported digital music service, said on Tuesday that it has signed a license deal with independent digital music distributor The Orchard (NASD: ORCD). Under the deal, The Orchard's more than 1.3 million tracks will be available on We7 via ad-funded, on-demand streaming and downloads, as well as for-pay MP3 downloads. We7 also has deals with major labels EMI, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group.

Los Angeles - Major record label EMI's Australian unit has launched an MP3 download store in the country called Musichead MP3, Billboard reports. Powered by U.K.-based digital music store 7digital, Musichead launches with a library of over 500,000 tracks, and accepts payments via both credit card and PayPal.

Washington - Two months after its merger with XM Satellite Radio, Sirius (NASD: SIRI) has added several of XM's exclusive channels to its radio service, Reuters reported on Tuesday. "Now for the first time, you can add XM channels to your Sirius subscription," Sirius said on its website. Among the available channels is the popular Oprah & Friends, as well as NBA, NHL and PGA Tour programming. To receive the extra channels, current subscribers must upgrade to a plan that costs about $17 a month, up from the basic charge of about $13 a month.

London - Shazam, the operator of a mobile music discovery service, announced on Tuesday a deal with Korea's Samsung, to embed its application on Samsung phones, including its new Beatb and Beats handsets. Shazam recently announced 1.5 million downloads of its application for Apple's iPhone.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Games said on Tuesday that veteran rock band AC/DC will offer a downloadable full album of live tracks in its upcoming "Rock Band 2" game. The AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will include 18 tracks, making for a total of more than 99 minutes of gameplay for each instrument.

New York - IGA Worldwide, the operator of an in-game advertising network, announced on Tuesday that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Activision (NASD: ATVI). The company will place ads within multiple Activision PlayStation 3 titles, the first of which being the upcoming "Guitar Hero World Tour."

Washington - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved the Webcaster Settlement Act, which passed in the House over the weekend and was introduced to allow webcasters to continue to negotiate new royalty agreements with copyright owners while Congress is busy with the elections. "This legislation will enable the Digital Media Association (DiMA) and our member companies, and all Internet radio services, to continue negotiating royalty rates with SoundExchange for the years 2006-2015. We are very hopeful of reaching agreement soon, and thereby creating long-term stability that will re-energize the Internet radio business," said DiMA executive director Jonathan Potter.

Research Triangle Park, N.C. - Stating that "market conditions have changed very rapidly and action must be taken to ensure that it can remain competitive in the dynamic and fast-paced telecommunications industry," Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE), the manufacturer of communication devices, announced that it will reduce its workforce worldwide by 2,000 people.

Washington - U.S. consumers who still have analog TV sets that receive over-the-air signals are being urged by the government to apply for coupons that can be used toward the purchase of digital TV converter boxes by year's end, to "minimize the chances of losing TV reception" when analog signals are switched off in February.

Los Angeles - A number of retired NFL players have filed a lawsuit claiming that the NFL Players, Inc. and game publisher Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) conspired to deprive them of fees from the use of their likenesses in the wildly popular "Madden NFL" game franchise, GamePolitics reported.

New York - HealthiNation, a digital health video network, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $7.5 million in its second round of venture capital, led by Intel Capital.

Seattle - RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) on Tuesday filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against the Hollywood movie studios and the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) -- which licenses the anti-copying technology found on DVDs -- asking a federal judge to rule that its recently-released software that can make copies of DVDs does not violate the DVD CCA's license agreement. Seattle-based Real said it filed the lawsuit "in response to threats made by the major movie studios"; its lawsuit names Disney (NYSE: DIS), Paramount, Sony Pictures (NYSE: SNE), Fox (NYSE: NWS), NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) and Viacom (NYSE: VIA) as defendants.

Washington - Creative Loafing, the Florida-based publisher of the Washington City Paper and five other alternative weekly publications, said that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

London - EnQii Holdings, the operator of a global, digital out-of-home advertising network, announced on Tuesday that it has closed an $18 million second round of financing, led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Wellington Partners.

San Mateo, Calif. - Zvents, the provider of local search engine and paid listings ad network, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $24 million in additional funding from new investors including Nokia Growth Partners, NAVTEQ and AT&T.