San Francisco - Capitulating to insistent demands from the major labels, Apple on Tuesday introduced a three-tiered variable pricing scheme for songs sold from its iTunes Store, and further announced that its entire library will be available for purchase free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions by the spring, The New York Times reported in a live blog from the Macworld trade show in San Francisco. [more..]

Los Angeles - Citing early internal retail sales data, Microsoft says it has now sold 28 million Xbox 360 video game consoles worldwide compared to 20 million Sony PlayStation 3s, while for its part Sony says that PlayStation 3 sales were up 130% during the holiday shopping season, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Video hosting site Veoh has prevailed in a copyright infringement suit filed against the company by Universal Music Group, with the court ruling that transcoding and other activities utilized in serving streaming video are covered under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). [more..]

Santa Clara, Calif. - Terminating a deal struck last month to sell its TV Guide Network to Allen Shapiro and One Equity Partners, Macrovision, the provider of copy-protection technology and media databases, said that it will instead sell the network to film studio Lionsgate for $255 million, the same price as the original deal.
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McLean, Va. - Just months after raising $18 million in its third round of funding, Clearspring Technologies, the developer of a widget network designed to connect publishers and advertisers to audiences on social networking sites, has laid off an unspecified number of employees -- possibly up to 20%, according to a report in TechCrunch. [more..]

Dallas - RipCode, a provider of Internet and mobile video infrastructure solutions, announced on Tuesday that it has raised over $12.5 million in a new financing round led by Granite Ventures. [more..]

Waltham, Mass. - ClickSquared, a developer of interactive marketing services, has raised $11 million in its second round of venture capital, which was led by JMI Equity, ABS Ventures and Flybridge. [more..]

Tel Aviv, Israel - SundaySky, a provider of digital video generation services, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $8 million in first round financing from Carmel Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners. [more..]

Los Angeles - Media and electronics retail store chain Best Buy has begun selling refurbished Apple iPhone 3G models at a $50 discount, Reuters reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Sling Media, a unit of EchoStar that develops media place-shifting devices and services, announced on Tuesday that it will release a version of its mobile software for Apple's iPhone later in the first quarter. [more..]

San Francisco - The top-selling album of 2008 on Amazon MP3 was "Ghosts I-IV," notable in that the instrumental album from Nine Inch Nails was also made available entirely for free by the band on file-sharing networks. [more..]

New York - YouLicense.com, the provider of an online music licensing platform, announced on Tuesday the launch of a new automated, private label service that lets content owners set up their own branded online licensing marketplaces. [more..]

Los Angeles - Universal Music/Interscope Records on Tuesday said on Tuesday that it will launch an animated series featuring platinum-selling hip-hop artist Soulja Boy. [more..]

New York - Universal Music Group announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with ID Interactive to offer a custom ringtone creation service for its family of labels. [more..]

San Jose, Calif. - ActiveVideo Networks and Web series network Blip.tv said on Tuesday that they have partnered to offer Blip.tv content on ActiveVideo's network, which serves traditional programming and Web-based content to digital set-top boxes and other Web-connected devices. [more..]