Washington - A federal judge has ruled that the ten-year-old Child Online Protection Act (COPA) -- which has never been enforced, but provided criminal and civil penalties for those making sexually explicit content freely available online -- is unconstitutional, and issued a permanent injunction barring its enforcement. [more..]

New York - NBC Universal and News Corp. announced on Thursday the formation of a joint venture that will launch a video-sharing site this summer to compete with YouTube, with thousands of hours of programming to be distributed through partners AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo. [more..]

San Francisco - Mobile games publisher Glu Mobile raised $84 million in its initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, giving the company a market capitalization of around $327 million. [more..]

Washington - The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), an organization of more than 600 U.S. music publishing companies representing the rights of songwriters, announced on Thursday that it has sued XM Satellite Radio for failing to pay royalties on its XM + MP3 digital music download service. [more..]

Washington - SoundExchange, the independent entity set up by the major labels to collect and distribute digital music royalties, responded to criticisms from small and large webcasters alike that the royalty rates recently announced by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) are too high by calling the decision-making process "fair." [more..]

Washington - Satellite radio firms Sirius and XM said in an SEC filing that they believe that Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules do not prohibit one company from owning two satellite radio licenses, Reuters reported. [more..]

New York - Viacom, which recently filed a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube, was itself sued on Thursday by activist groups representing the producers of a parody video who say Viacom made an illegal request that the video be removed from YouTube. [more..]

Los Angeles - Liberty Media's Starz Entertainment cable TV network has sued Disney's Buena Vista Television unit, over the sale of Disney movies on Web services like iTunes and Wal-Mart Downloads for which Starz claims it held an exclusive license, Reuters reported on Thursday. [more..]

London - Neteller, an online payment processor that served 85% of the Internet gambling industry until certain of its assets were frozen by the U.S. Justice Dept. (DOJ), announced that it has signed an agreement with the DOJ that will allow millions of dollars to be returned to its former U.S. customers. [more..]

Canton, Mass. - Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, specialty consumer electronics retailer, on Thursday announced that, in order to cut costs, it is closing 49 stores, two regional facilities, and exiting certain regions of the country. [more..]

Los Angeles - Microsoft said on Wednesday that an investigation into possible fraud on its Xbox Live online game service found no evidence of a security breach, Reuters reported. [more..]

London - Sportingbet, a U.K.-based Internet gambling firm that saw its CEO arrested in New York last year -- under a warrant issued in Louisiana -- announced that it has resolved the matter with the St. Landry District Attorney in Louisiana, which has cancelled all warrants against current and former Sportingbet officers. [more..]

Arlington, Va. - U.S. companies that received venture capital from 1970-2005 accounted for 10 million jobs and $2.1 trillion in revenues in 2005, according to a new study by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). [more..]

San Francisco - Quantcast, a provider of open Internet ratings data, has raised $5.7 million in its first round of financing, led by The Founders Fund and Revolution Capital, PEHub.com reported. [more..]

Foster City, Calif. - Teracent, a developer of online advertising technology, has raised around $5 million in its first round of venture capital financing, led by New Enterprise Associated, PEHub.com reported. [more..]

Seattle - Confirming earlier rumors, Starbucks and partner Concord Music Group announced on Thursday that former Beatle Paul McCartney has signed on as the first artist on Starbucks' new Hear Music record label. McCartney's forthcoming album is slated for release early this summer and will be available at all traditional music retail outlets as well as in Starbucks locations around the world. [more..]

Columbia, Md. - iBiquity Digital, the developer of HD Radio technology, said on Thursday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authorized the use of two HD Radio services -- multicasting and datacasting -- and allowed AM HD Radio stations to begin nighttime broadcasting. HD Radio allows broadcasters to send digital signals alongside their existing analog transmissions. Multicasting allows stations to transmit multiple digital programming signals -- for differing musical genres, for instance -- while datacasting enables stations to send song information, traffic data and other content to displays on consumers' radios. 
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San Francisco - Kongregate on Thursday announced the beta launch of its social Web games site, which it is billing as the "YouTube of games." The company also announced that it has raised an undisclosed sum of seed funding, from investors including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; Excite co-founder Joe Kraus; Jeff Clavier and Richard Wolpert. San Francisco-based Kongregate offers over 300 free online games, with integrated social network elements like profiles, friend lists, chat, comments and ratings. [more..]

Branchburg, N.J. - Congoo said it has launched a service that allows users to create custom news websites that include articles from publishers of subscription-only content. New Jersey-based Congoo's News Circles lets users either select from categories or create keyword-based searches that cull articles from 25,000 news sources. By submitting their e-mail address, ZIP code and country, users can install the company's Netpass application, which provides free, limited access to subscription-based content from providers like The Wall Street Journal, Business Wire, Adweek and Billboard. [more..]

San Antonio, Texas - AT&T on Thursday announced a new feature that allows subscribers to its U-verse digital TV service to view live TV on a PC. The U-verse OnTheGo service is powered by technology from MobiTV, and provides access to some 30 live channels -- including The Weather Channel and Bloomberg Television -- for an extra $10 per month. AT&T said it also plans to eventually offer U-verse OnTheGo via wireless devices, including mobile phones. [more..]