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DMW Daily, December 19, 2008

Top Stories
o RIAA Drops Lawsuit Campaign; Asks ISPs to Police Customers
o Electronic Arts Expands Job Cuts to 10% of Workforce
o Report: YouTube Making "Tens of Millions" for Universal Music
o Sirius XM Gains Approval to Issue Shares, Enact Reverse Split
o Student Gets 15 Years for YouTube Bomb-Making Video
o Video Ad Services Firm PixelFish Buys Assets of Eyespot
o NORAD to Break Out New Technology to Track Santa
Opinion & Analysis
o Analysis: RIAA - A Change of Heart, Or a Tactical Retreat?
Briefly Noted
o Report: Over 1 Billion Digital Song Downloads Sold in '08
o CEO, CFO Resign From U.K. Web Ad Company Phorm
o Universal, Verbinski to Produce Movie Based on "Second Life"
o Meebo Adds Messaging Support for MySpace, Facebook
 Top Stories
o RIAA Drops Lawsuit Campaign; Asks ISPs to Police Customers 
New York - After five years and more than 35,000 copyright infringement lawsuits filed against suspected music file-swappers, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has decided to end its litigation campaign, opting instead to negotiate agreements with Internet service providers to take action against their subscribers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. [more..]
o Electronic Arts Expands Job Cuts to 10% of Workforce 
Redwood City, Calif. - Two months after unveiling plans to trim its workforce, video game publisher Electronic Arts announced on Friday that those cuts will be broader than originally expected. [more..]
o Report: YouTube Making "Tens of Millions" for Universal Music 
San Francisco - Major record label Universal Music Group is generating "tens of millions of dollars" from Google's YouTube, the company told CNET News.com this week. [more..]
o Sirius XM Gains Approval to Issue Shares, Enact Reverse Split 
Washington - Shareholders of Sirius XM Radio have approved two new measures aimed at bolstering the company's lagging stock price and paying down debt. [more..]
o Student Gets 15 Years for YouTube Bomb-Making Video 
San Francisco - An Egyptian engineering student at the University of South Florida was sentenced this week to 15 years in prison, after pleading guilty to uploading a video to YouTube that demonstrates how to make a bomb detonator out of a remote-control toy car, Wired.com reported. [more..]
o Video Ad Services Firm PixelFish Buys Assets of Eyespot 
Los Angeles - PixelFish, a provider of online video ad services, announced on Friday that it has acquired the assets of now-defunct online video production tools firm Eyespot for an undisclosed sum. [more..]
o NORAD to Break Out New Technology to Track Santa 
Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. - The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said that it plans to utilize several new technologies this Christmas to help people follow Santa's journey from the North Pole. [more..]
 Opinion & Analysis
o Analysis: RIAA - A Change of Heart, Or a Tactical Retreat? 
It's not really a shock to hear that the RIAA is rethinking its approach, blogs Paul Sweeting. [more..]
 Briefly Noted
o Report: Over 1 Billion Digital Song Downloads Sold in '08 
Los Angeles - More than one billion digital song downloads have been sold so far this year, an increase of 28% from 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures cited by Billboard. [more..]
o CEO, CFO Resign From U.K. Web Ad Company Phorm 
London - Phorm, a controversial U.K. firm that monitors ISP subscribers' Web surfing in order to serve them targeted ads, this week saw its U.K. CEO Hugo Drayton and CFO Lynne Millar resign from the company, Wired.com reported. [more..]
o Universal, Verbinski to Produce Movie Based on "Second Life" 
Los Angeles - Universal Studios and director Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Caribbean," "The Ring") have acquired the rights to a 2007 Wall Street Journal article about the online virtual world "Second Life," Variety reports. [more..]
o Meebo Adds Messaging Support for MySpace, Facebook 
Mountain View, Calif. - Meebo, the provider of a Web-based messaging and chat service, announced this week that it has added support for the instant messaging platforms on MySpace and Facebook. [more..]