San Francisco - Snocap, the digital music licensing company started by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, has laid off 60% of its staff, and is pursuing talks with several interested suitors, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - Sony BMG's Zomba Recording label, which owns the copyrights to Britney Spears' recordings, announced yesterday that it has filed a copyright infringement suit against celebrity gossip blog PerezHilton.com and its proprietor, Mario Lavandeira, alleging he illegally obtained and posted recordings by Spears on the Internet. [more..]

Los Angeles - Major record label Universal Music Group is working on a label-owned iTunes Store competitor concept called Total Music, which would provide unlimited access to songs, paid for through a $90 fee added to the cost of portable players, BusinessWeek reports in its October issue. [more..]

Los Angeles - Contentious talks between writers and producers, over how to split revenues from DVD sales and Internet-based distribution of films and television shows, may result in a writers' strike, FT.com reported. [more..]

Redmond, Wash. - Nintendo does not have any price cuts in the works for its $249 Wii console, which is expected to be in short supply during the holiday shopping season, Reuters reported. [more..]

Stanford, Calif. - The Fair Use Project, part of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet & Society, announced on Friday that it has filed a counterclaim in the case of a filmmaker accused of copyright and trademark infringement over a documentary about Count Dante, a martial arts expert who founded Chicago's Black Dragon Fighting Society in the 1960s. [more..]

San Francisco - PlanetOut, a media company focused on the LGBT community, announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell its RSVP Vacations unit to Atlantis Events, a company that offers all-gay cruise, resort and tour packages. [more..]

Atlanta - Neurotic Media, a provider of marketing and distribution services for the digital media industry, announced that it has raised an undisclosed sum of bridge funding, led by Seraph Group. [more..]

In-game advertising took a leap forwards with Toyota's Wednesday release of its Xbox Live Arcade Advergame, blogs Jay Baage. [more..]

Guy Kawasaki interviews Fred Greguras, partner at the Silicon Valley law firm of Fenwick and West, about how to make the right decisions at the start of a company. [more..]

Gainesville, Fla. - Grooveshark, a peer-to-peer music sharing service that says it compensates artists and copyright holders, on Friday launched a one-day promotion that offered songs for purchase for 29 cents. [more..]

Costa Mesa, Calif. - Tickets.com, a unit of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, announced this week that it has partnered with the Royal Oak Music Theatre in Michigan, to offer concertgoers the ability to purchase tickets that will be delivered in the form of a bar code to their mobile phones that can be presented for entry at the venue. [more..]

New York - The Nielsen Company on Friday announced the launch of DemoWatch, a new feature for its Web-based KeepingTrac service that lets advertisers monitor the demographic composition of their advertising audiences. [more..]

Atlanta - The Weather Channel Interactive on Friday launched an optimized weather application for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch. [more..]

San Francisco - Nintendo said this week that it will postpone the launch of "Super Smash Bros. Brawl," an anticipated title for its Wii console, from this fall until Feb. 10 as it continues to refine the game and add new features, Wired News reported. [more..]

Durham, N.C. - Online game developer Funcom said on Friday that it has launched virtual item sales within its "Anarchy Online" massively multiplayer online game. [more..]