Washington - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it conducted raids on businesses, storefronts and residences on Wednesday in 16 states, related to an investigation into the alleged sale and distribution of illegal video game console mod chips and disc copyright circumvention devices. [more..]

Washington - The U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to approve the Free Flow of Information Act, which would shield bloggers who derive "financial gain or livelihood" from their efforts from having to identify confidential sources, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

San Francisco - An informal inquiry into stock options granting practices at technology publisher CNET Networks has been upgraded to a formal investigation, the company said in its second quarter earnings statement. [more..]

Tokyo - After a second meeting with executives in Tokyo with YouTube and Google this week, a group of Japanese rights holders again demanded that their copyrighted material be removed from YouTube, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

San Francisco - StubHub, an online ticket marketplace and unit of eBay, announced on Thursday that it has signed an exclusive five-year deal to become the official secondary ticket marketplace for Major League Baseball. [more..]

Washington - National Geographic Ventures (NGV), a unit of the National Geographic Society that creates and distributes the organization's content across multiple platforms, said on Thursday that it has launched National Geographic Music and Radio (NGMR). [more..]

San Francisco - HandHeld Entertainment, a maker of portable media players and operator of entertainment websites, announced on Thursday that it will acquire eBaum's World, an entertainment site that offers user-generated videos, games, jokes, photos and other content, for $17.5 million. [more..]

New York, N.Y. - GoFish, a San Francisco-based video sharing site, on Thursday called off its planned $30 million acquisition of New York-based Bolt Media, after Bolt was unable to finalize a settlement in a copyright infringement lawsuit. [more..]

New York - U.S. venture capital firms raised $3.23 billion during the second quarter, a 62% drop from the same period last year and the biggest decline since 2002, according to figures released by Dow Jones VentureOne. [more..]

Milpitas, Calif. - Magnum Semiconductor, a developer of chips, software and reference platforms for recording, viewing and managing audio-video content, said that it has completed its acquisition of LSI Logic's consumer products business. [more..]

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Minekey, a provider of online content discovery and a recommendations widget, has raised $3 million in its first round of venture capital financing, led by NEA IndoUS Ventures, PEHub.com reported. [more..]

Jay Baage blogs about Sir Elton John's not very realistic vision of shutting down the entire Internet for five years in order for musicians to be able to make "quality music" like in the 70's again.
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Making James Hong and Markus Frind heroes for running multi-million dollar websites like Hot or Not and Plenty of Fish in their underwear is counterproductive, according to Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin. [more..]

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s MySpace said on Thursday that it has arranged an exclusive deal to host the season one finale of the LonelyGirl15 interactive online drama on its MySpaceTV site. [more..]

London - News Corp.'s U.K.-based British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has announced plans to offer a mobile soccer video clip service for English Premier League and European Champions League matches, New Media Age reported. [more..]

Englewood, Colo. - EchoStar Communications, operator of the DISH Network satellite TV service, said on Thursday that it has added Setanta Sports' programming package -- which includes more than 1,000 live events, including U.K. and European soccer -- to its offering. [more..]

Middlebury, Conn. - Watch manufacturer Timex on Thursday introduced the iControl, a new model in its Ironman line that doubles as a wireless controller for Apple's iPod and iPhone. [more..]

London - Universal Pictures said on Thursday that it has hired Minick, a provider of wireless infrastructure and interactive applications, to build and manage its mobile film portals on a global basis. [more..]

Toronto - Toronto-based FUN Technologies and London-based King.com, two providers of online skill-based games, on Thursday announced the formation of a trade group called the Interactive Skill Games Association (ISGA). [more..]