Palo Alto, Calif. - News Corp.'s MySpace online social network is poised to close a deal to acquire iLike, a social music service and popular application on rival Facebook, for around $20 million, TechCrunch reports. [more..]

Washington - The U.S. Department of Justice has defended the constitutionality of an award of $1.92 million in damages for copyright infringement on a file-sharing network, which a jury ordered Kazaa user Jammie Thomas-Rasset to pay the major record labels. [more..]

Port Washington, N.Y. - U.S. video game sales were down 29% in July -- their fifth consecutive month of decline -- to $848.9 million, and are down 14% overall from the same period last year, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group. [more..]

New York - A group of academic authors and professors within the University of California network believes that Google's settlement with authors over the use of works in its book-scanning project does not take their interests into consideration, The New York Times' Bits blog reported.
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New York - Qtrax, the developer of an ad-supported music download service seven years in the making, is facing more lawsuits from vendors who claim they haven't been paid, in addition to one filed by Oracle over a $1.9 million bounced check, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

Reston, Va. - More people watched online videos in June than during any other month since the birth of the Internet, according to new figures from Internet audience measurement firm comScore. [more..]

Silver Spring, Md. - Discovery Communications, the cable broadcaster that owns such networks as the Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet, said that it plans to raise $500 million through a notes offering. [more..]

Chicago - MSNBC, the cable channel joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal, announced that it has acquired EveryBlock, an online hyperlocal news publishing service. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - FanSnap, a live event ticket search engine, has raised $5 million in new funding from Highland Capital Partners.
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Salem, Mass. - Fashion Playtes, the developer of a website where girls will be able to design their own clothes and then purchase them, has closed a $1.5 million first round of financing, led by New Atlantic Ventures and LaunchCapital. [more..]

One of the funniest things about Twitter is how it has spawned a language unto itself for those who use it, blogs Rohit Hhargava. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - Facebook has partnered with liberal blog The Huffington Post to integrate usage of the two sites via Facebook Connect. [more..]

Charleston, S.C. - Amazon.com's CreateSpace on-demand distribution service announced on Monday that it has partnered with New Line Records, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate to make a selection of movie soundtracks and TV show themes available as on-demand CDs. [more..]

McLean, Va. - Gannett Digital Media Network, the digital division of newspaper publisher Gannett, said that it has partnered with history website Footnote.com to launch HistoryBeat.com, a new site combining social networking with archival photos and original newspaper coverage of historical events. [more..]