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DMW Daily, September 10, 2008

Top Stories
o Senate Bill Would Beef Up U.S. IP Protection Internationally
o Apple Executives to Pay $14M to Settle Stock Options Lawsuit
o AOL to Open Portal to Outside Email, Content
o EliteTorrents Admin Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison
o Potential First Lady Biographies Debut on Amazon Kindle
o Finetunes Says Last.fm Using Unlicensed Songs, Seeks Damages
o VideoSurf Debuts Video Search Service; Backers Include Al Gore
o SpinSpotter Gets Funding for Media Bias Identification Tool
o Mpowerplayer Raises $2.5 Million for Online Mobile Game Demos
o Mobile Games Firms Reaxion, Mobliss Merge to Form PressOK
Briefly Noted
o NBC Wins TV Show Pricing, Bundling Concessions on iTunes
o CBS to Stream SEC College Football Games for Free
o Alcatel-Lucent, Penn State Team on Mobile Video Social Net
o RealNetworks' Cutting Tune Offers Custom Ringtone Creation
o Warner Licenses Songs to French Music Service Deezer
o Comcast's Fancast to Stream Premiere of ABC's "Lincoln Heights"
o Zed to Distribute NBA Mobile Content Internationally
o Verizon Adds Content Channels to V CAST Mobile TV Service
 Top Stories
o Senate Bill Would Beef Up U.S. IP Protection Internationally 
Washington - Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Wednesday introduced the International Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement Act of 2008, legislation intended to crack down on the theft of U.S. intellectual property around the world. [more..]
o Apple Executives to Pay $14M to Settle Stock Options Lawsuit 
New York - A group of Apple senior executives, including CEO Steve Jobs, has agreed to settle a derivative lawsuit that alleged they damaged the company through their involvement in the backdating of Apple stock options, the Associated Press reports. [more..]
o AOL to Open Portal to Outside Email, Content 
Dulles, Va. - Time Warner's AOL for the first time plans to open its AOL.com portal to outside content, allowing users to access email accounts from other providers and check their social networking pages directly from the site. [more..]
o EliteTorrents Admin Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison 
Washington - A 26-year-old found guilty of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement as an administrator of EliteTorrents, a BitTorrent file-sharing tracker site shut down in 2005, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. [more..]
o Potential First Lady Biographies Debut on Amazon Kindle 
Seattle - Amazon.com announced on Wednesday that it has scored exclusive distribution rights to the biographies of potential first ladies Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain for its Kindle e-book reader device.
[more..]
o Finetunes Says Last.fm Using Unlicensed Songs, Seeks Damages 
London - Finetunes, a Germany-based digital music distributor, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to social music discovery service Last.fm, alleging the company is streaming songs that it is not authorized to offer, the company tells Billboard. [more..]
o VideoSurf Debuts Video Search Service; Backers Include Al Gore 
San Mateo, Calif. - VideoSurf, a new online video search service backed by Current Media co-founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, on Wednesday launched a beta version of its service at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco.
[more..]
o SpinSpotter Gets Funding for Media Bias Identification Tool 
San Diego - SpinSpotter, a new online service that purports to be able to identify instances of bias and inaccuracy in any online news story, has announced the launch of its service, and an undisclosed sum of initial funding provided by Epic Ventures and angel investors. [more..]
o Mpowerplayer Raises $2.5 Million for Online Mobile Game Demos 
Reston, Va. - Mpowerplayer, a developer of software that allows content providers to offer online demos of mobile games, said on Wednesday that it has secured $2.5 million in its first round of funding. [more..]
o Mobile Games Firms Reaxion, Mobliss Merge to Form PressOK 
Seattle - Mobile game publishers Reaxion and Mobliss on Wednesday announced that they have merged to create PressOK Entertainment. [more..]
 Briefly Noted
o NBC Wins TV Show Pricing, Bundling Concessions on iTunes 
San Francisco - NBC, which pulled its TV shows from Apple's iTunes Store for a year over differences on pricing and bundling, was able to get Apple to allow some older shows to be sold for 99 cents, and won the rights to set its own pricing on some bundles on TV episode compilations when its shows returned to the store yesterday, CNET News.com reported. [more..]
o CBS to Stream SEC College Football Games for Free 
New York - CBS announced on Wednesday that it will begin offering free live streaming of SEC college football games this year, the Associated Press reported. [more..]
o Alcatel-Lucent, Penn State Team on Mobile Video Social Net 
Paris - French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Penn State University to jointly develop a mobile video social networking application. [more..]
o RealNetworks' Cutting Tune Offers Custom Ringtone Creation 
San Francisco - RealNetworks on Wednesday announced the release of Cutting Tune, a service that mobile network operators can use to allow subscriber to select any portion of songs made available from content partners as ringtones or ringback tones. [more..]
o Warner Licenses Songs to French Music Service Deezer 
New York - Warner Music International has signed a deal with France-based, ad-supported music service Deezer, that will see Warner tracks made available on Deezer in France, the U.K. and Germany. [more..]
o Comcast's Fancast to Stream Premiere of ABC's "Lincoln Heights" 
Philadelphia - Comcast said on Wednesday that its Fancast broadband site will exclusively host the third season premiere of the ABC Family series "Lincoln Heights" for a week before its broadcast debut. [more..]
o Zed to Distribute NBA Mobile Content Internationally 
Madrid - Spain-based mobile content distributor Zed announced on Wednesday that it signed an agreement with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to distribute NBA mobile content in North America, Europe and parts of Asia. [more..]
o Verizon Adds Content Channels to V CAST Mobile TV Service 
Basking Ridge, N.J. - Verizon Wireless on Wednesday announced a slew of content additions to its V CAST Video service, which costs $15 per month. [more..]