Washington - At a hearing in Washington on Wednesday, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) came to the aid of Web radio broadcasters who say they'll likely be forced offline if new royalty rates approved by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) are enacted, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) has introduced two new titles for the PlayStation 3 that incorporate many of the same virtual world features found in "Second Life," as part of its "Game 3.0" initiative announced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. [more..]

New York - Of the 76% of consumers in the U.S. and Western Europe who own mobile phones with Web access, about one-third are currently using it, according to a survey conducted by the Online Publishers Association and TNS Media and Entertainment. [more..]

Paris - France has passed a law making it a crime for citizens to post videos depicting real-world violence to the Internet, except if they are professional journalists, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Online social network Imeem announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Snocap, the digital music registry and content identification firm, to provide content identification services, and allow record labels and artists to promote themselves and earn ad revenue from songs they stream on Imeem [more..]

San Francisco - Developer Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios' "Gears of War" Xbox 360 shooter game took home the honor of Best Game at the 7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) as part of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week. [more..]

New York - Next New Networks, a distributor of Web video "micro-networks," announced on Thursday that it has raised $8 million in seed financing, led by Spark Capital. [more..]

Orlando, Fla. - Promo Only, a provider of subscription-based music and music video services for the record industry and businesses, announced on Thursday that it has ended its partnership with Destiny Media Technologies, with whom it was offering a service that securely distributes digital singles from labels to radio stations. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - Viva Vision, a distributor of branded, user-generated and original mobile video programming, announced on Thursday that it secured $5 million in new funding from Equal Elements. [more..]

Hertzliya, Israel - Mobile game developer Vollee (formerly Game Steam) announced on Thursday that it has raised $4 million in its first round of venture capital financing, led by BlueRun Ventures with participation from Benchmark Capital. [more..]

Austin, Texas - Magnolia Pictures, the film distribution company co-owned by Dallas Mavericks owner and dot-com billionaire Mark Cuban, has filed for a subpoena that asks Google how it can obtain the identity of a YouTube user who has uploaded potentially infringing clips of its films to the site, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

San Mateo, Calif. - Gemini Mobile, a developer of wireless software infrastructure, including a 3D community platform for mobile phones, announced on Thursday that it has received a $20 million investment from Goldman Sachs. [more..]

McLean, Va. - USA Today said on Thursday that it has relaunched its USAToday.com website, adding more user-generated content, comments and recommendations. Ken Paulson, the editor of USA Today, said that the new site has been "recast for an era in which readers increasingly have the power to monitor many sources of information at once." Readers will now be able to contribute to the site in a variety of ways, including submitting comments on story pages, participating in forums on topics of special interest, uploading photos and authoring blogs. [more..]

San Francisco - "Aquaria," an underwater adventure game developed by Bit Blot, collected the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game at the 9th Annual Independent Games Festival, held in conjunction with this week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. A full list of winners in all categories is available from a link below. [more..]

San Francisco - EE Fund Management, an investment management firm specializing in the video game industry, on Thursday introduced EEndex, an equity index composed of 45 stocks representing the public video game industry. Based in nine countries, the index's members account for a combined over $126 billion in adjusted market capitalization. [more..]

Irvine, Calif. - Vivendi Games' Blizzard Entertainment on Thursday announced details of its third Worldwide Invitational, a public event where the company connects with players of its "Warcraft," "Diablo" and "StarCraft" titles, and hosts a range of gamer tournaments. This year's event will be held in Seoul, South Korea on May 19-20, and will feature the first season for its World of Warcraft's Arena Tournament. [more..]