London - Following a string of arrests of online gambling company executives in the country, the U.S. Department of Justice has issued requests for information from several investment banks about their dealings with a number of gaming sites, Reuters reported, citing "banking sources." [more..]

New York - A federal judge has ruled that record labels may sue XM Satellite Radio over the company's new devices, which allow consumers to record and store copies of songs played on the radio service as MP3 files. [more..]

San Francisco - The same exploit used to crack part of the anti-piracy technology on the next-generation HD DVD format has been successfully used on the rival Blu-ray format, Wired News reported on Monday. [more..]

New York - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive announced on Monday that its internal investigation has uncovered irregularities in its stock options granting practices. [more..]

San Mateo, Calif. - Bitpass, a four-year-old provider of online payment processing services, has announced that it is discontinuing operations, due to "circumstances beyond our control," CEO Matthew Graves wrote in an e-mail to customers. [more..]

Cannes, France - A consortium of the world's independent record labels have joined to form Merlin, a new licensing agency that will release music from the labels that represent 30% of the world's music market to digital services. [more..]

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s online social network MySpace announced on Monday that it has filed suit against a number of spammers for posting millions of spam "bulletins" to MySpace users' accounts. [more..]

Herndon, Va. - Marking a major shift in strategy, Ruckus, a legal music downloading service aimed at college campuses, said on Monday that it will stop charging licensing fees to colleges and universities, instead making its service available for free to all students with valid ".edu" e-mail addresses. [more..]

Park City, Utah - RealNetworks, a provider of media delivery technology, announced on Monday that its newly launched Film.com news and entertainment site will offer a free, streaming full-length independent movie each week. [more..]

San Francisco - Kiptronic, a provider of ad-insertion technology for audio and video podcasts, plans to announce that it has raised $4 million in its first round of financing, led by Blueprint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks, NewTeeVee.com reported. [more..]

Santa Clara, Calif. - Stoke, a developer of hardware and software that allows network operators to deliver multimedia services concurrently over fixed and wireless broadband access technologies, said on Monday that it has raised $20 million in its third round of funding. [more..]

San Mateo, Calif. - Wize, a San Mateo, Calif.-based start-up that compiles user-generated and expert product reviews and ranks them using a scoring algorithm, announced on Monday that it has raised $4 million in its first round of venture capital financing, from the Mayfield Fund and Bessemer Venture Partners. [more..]

St. Louis - Anheuser-Busch announced on Monday that it has partnered with Aristotle, Inc. to implement an independent age-verification system for its online entertainment network, Bud.TV, and the rest of its beer-branded websites. The company's Bud.TV is set to launch on Feb. 4, following the Super Bowl broadcast, and will feature programming "similar to late-night network and cable television." The service from Aristotle will attempt to match the first and last name, date of birth and zip code of site visitors against the company's database of public records. [more..]

Alviso, Calif. - TiVo announced on Monday that automaker Lexus has signed an upfront advertising commitment, renewing its agreement to utilize TiVo's interactive and targeted advertising services. Under the deal, Lexus will be able to use digital video recorder advertising services from TiVo such as Gold Star sponsorship on TiVo Central, Program Placement, Product Watch and a "Custom Car Configurator" application. [more..]

New York - CBS Corporation's Showtime Networks on Monday announced plans to launch a virtual reality area for its "The L Word" cable TV series within the virtual world "Second Life." Showtime partnered with The Electric Sheep Company to develop the various aspects of the 3D environment, which include a virtual dance club, and virtual amphitheater where Second Life users will be able to screen select episodes of The L Word. [more..]

San Francisco - IODA, a San Francisco-based provider of digital distribution, marketing and technology services to the independent music industry, said on Monday that it has launched IODA UK after completing its acquisition of European digital music distributor Uploader. Headquartered in London, IODA UK will retain all existing Uploader staff, with Pete Dodge heading the division as managing director. The company said that it plans to expand further into Europe in the near future. [more..]

Cannes, France - Gracenote, a provider of CD identification and other database services, announced on Monday that it has expanded its Lyrics program into Europe, having initiated licensing discussions with European music publishers and artists. California-based Gracenote signed over 80 publishers to add titles to its Lyrics database in the U.S., including the five major publishers. The company said that its database contains more than 600,000 uniquely European albums, and has been searched more than 100 million times by European consumers. Gracenote plans to launch its Lyrics program in Europe in 2008. [more..]

Cannes, France - The Orchard, a digital distributor of independent label music, announced on Monday a licensing and marketing agreement with Muzak. The agreement will bring The Orchard's catalog of independent music to Muzak's 100 million daily listeners in hundreds of thousands of locations. [more..]

Orlando, Fla. - The HD Digital Radio Alliance, a trade group of broadcasters promoting the adoption of iBiquity Digital's HD Radio digital broadcasting format, announced on Monday that 17 new markets plan to offer HD2 multicasting channels. The new markets -- which include Omaha, Neb., Toledo, Ohio and Syracuse, N.Y. -- bring to 85 the total number of markets to have launched multicast channels that take advantage of HD Radio stations' ability to transmit multiple digital channels alongside their traditional analog signals. [more..]

San Francisco - Other Music, a popular independent record store in New York City's East Village, has announced plans to launch its own digital music store that will sell high-quality (320 Kpbs) songs in the unprotected MP3 format, Wired News reported. "We are trying to stay current, and to continue our 'mission' of spreading great music," Other Music co-owner Josh Madell told Wired News. "I personally prefer vinyl to CDs and CDs to MP3s, but in the end I'm just glad people are listening to music, and the convenience factor of MP3s is undeniable." [more..]

New York - Brilliant Technologies Corporation, a developer of an ad-supported, peer-to-peer music service, announced on Monday that it has licensed tracks from U.K. independent record label V2 Music for distribution on Qtrax. New York-based Brilliant Technologies has also licensed tracks from EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony/ATV Publishing, Universal Music Publishing and The Orchard for sale through Qtrax. [more..]

Bedford, Mass. - Groove Mobile, a provider of mobile music delivery technology, announced on Monday a partnership with Universal Music U.K., to build and operate a mobile music portal. The service will provide U.K. mobile users on any carrier with access to full-track downloads from Universal artists, via SMS short codes from their phones. Songs will be available through artists' own mobile music stores on their websites. Massachusetts-based Groove Mobile also powers mobile music services for 3UK and Sprint. [more..]

Cannes, France - RoyaltyShare, a provider of digital royalty processing services, on Monday introduced its Label Advantage Service, which it says is optimized for calculating and processing royalties for digital and physical sales. The company added that Sanctuary Records and Madacy Entertainment have signed on to use the Web-based service. [more..]

Beverly Hills, Calif. - Nareos, a developer of mobile peer-to-peer networking technology, said on Monday that it has launched a new version of its PeerBox Mobile application, that incorporates user-generated video streaming and additional social networking features. Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Nareos' PeerBox now allows users to upload videos, pictures or sound to its site -- either directly from their cell phones or from a PC -- and share them with other mobile users. [more..]

New York - Publisher Wenner Media announced on Monday that it has partnered with user-generated video-sharing site Veoh Networks, to create a branded entertainment channel for Us Weekly. Launching in February on Veoh and UsMagazine.com, the channel will feature news stories and features produced by Us editorial staff, as well as footage from celebrity parties. Users will also be encouraged to submit videos for coverage on the site. [more..]

Tempe, Ariz. - Limelight Networks, a provider of content delivery network services that speed the delivery of multimedia media content on the Internet, announced on Monday that video-sharing site Metacafe will use its services. ComScore ratings data shows Metacafe drew 16 million visitors and served 450 million videos in November. Limelight provides similar services for Amazon Unbox, MySpace and Xbox Live. [more..]

San Francisco - CNET Networks' GameSpot on Monday announced its editors' picks for the Most Wanted Games of 2007, which include anticipated franchise favorites like "Halo 3," "Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass" and "Half-Life 2: Episode Two." Other titles making GameSpot's list were "BioShock" (2K Games); "Crackdown" (Microsoft Game Studios); "God of War II" (SCEA); "Spore" (Electronic Arts); and "Super Mario Galaxy" (Nintendo). A full list is available at the link below. [more..]

San Francisco - Double Fusion, a provider of in-game advertising services, said on Monday that it has partnered with online game publisher K2 Network, to offer sponsorships and in-game ad placements within K2's forthcoming "War Rock" massively multiplayer PC game. The multi-year partnership will also allow marketers to sponsor tournaments, maps and in-game assets. "War Rock" is slated to launch on Feb. 7. [more..]