Washington - A bipartisan pair of lawmakers on Thursday introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act, a bill intended to nullify the effects of new, higher royalty rates recently set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) that many music webcasters say will put them out of business. [more..]

Cupertino, Calif. - Shares of Apple reached all-time high on Thursday after the company reported an 88% jump in net income for its fiscal second quarter. [more..]

Washington - Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, on Thursday introduced legislation intended to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which outlawed most forms of Internet gambling in the U.S. [more..]

Tokyo - Sony Corp. announced on Thursday that Sony Computer Entertainment chief executive Ken Kutaragi -- developer of the PlayStation video game console -- will retire in June. [more..]

Tokyo - Japanese video game maker Nintendo, which announced a 77% year-over-year profit increase on strong sales of its Wii and DS game systems, said it plans to increase production of its Wii console in response to demand, GamesIndustry.biz reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Apple CEO Steve Jobs doesn't think the subscription-based music distribution model being pushed for addition to the iTunes Store by the major record labels will resonate with consumers, Reuters reported. [more..]

Athens, Ohio - Ohio University has announced plans to take the drastic step of restricting the use of all peer-to-peer file-sharing applications on its campus computer network. [more..]

New York - News Corp.'s MySpace has launched a beta test of a version of its online social network in China, Reuters reported. [more..]

Washington - Buoyed by the additional of 285,000 new net subscribers, XM Satellite Radio, a provider of satellite radio services planning to merge with rival Sirius, on Thursday reported a smaller first-quarter loss. [more..]

Washington - Harman International Industries, a manufacturer of audio products and electronic systems, said on Thursday that it will be acquired for $8 billion by private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and GS Capital Partners. [more..]

Tokyo - Sony plans to launch a video-sharing site called eyeVio in Japan on Friday, representing the company's first foray into an increasingly crowded market currently dominated by Google's YouTube, Reuters reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - Rmail, a service that allows users to subscribe to RSS feeds via e-mail, announced that it has been acquired by NBC Universal. [more..]

Fairfield, Conn. - SignStorey, a provider of digital media and advertising networks to the grocery industry, announced on Thursday that it has acquired Captive Audience, a New Jersey-based provider of digital signage. [more..]

Munich, Germany - Adconion Media Group, an online advertising network based in Germany, announced that it has received an undisclosed investment from venture capital firm Wellington Partners. [more..]

London - Pete Townshend, guitarist for U.K. rock legends The Who, has unveiled software that lets users automatically create personalized music tracks online, Reuters reported. The Lifehouse Method, developed by Lawrence Bell and Dave Snowdon, automatically generates instrumental tracks based on user-provided voice recordings, digital images and rhythms clapped into a microphone. "You can put data in and get a piece of music out. It's as simple as that," Townshend told Reuters. [more..]

Leiden, Netherlands - Joost, the peer-to-peer-based streaming TV service founded by the creators of Kazaa and Skype, announced on Thursday that it has signed 32 advertising partners for the launch of its service. Global advertisers will include Coca-Cola, HP, Intel and Nike; European partners include IBM, Nokia, Vodafone and Warner Bros; and U.S. advertisers will include Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Motorola, Procter & Gamble and United Airlines. Joost also announced a partnership with The Interpublic Emerging Media Lab, where several of the advertising agency's clients will work jointly with Joost to develop creative marketing campaigns on the service. [more..]

Foster City, Calif. - Sony Computer Entertainment America on Thursday announced plans for its next-generation USB camera accessory for the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation Eye, which is scheduled for release in the summer. The accessory features improvements over the previous EyeToy for PlayStation 2 such as a faster frame rate; zoom lens; better microphone with more accurate speech recognition; and the ability to save video and audio clips directly to the PlayStation 3 hard disk. [more..]

Chicago - An indie rock band that released its new album in reverse -- having decided to run the already-recorded songs backwards after seeing David Lynch's "Inland Empire" -- have seen their efforts thwarted by computer-savvy listeners who put the album back in its pre-release, forwards-running form and made it available online, Pitchfork reported. "Pullhair Rubeye," an album from Animal Collective member Avey Tare and former Mum singer Kria Brekkan, received a 1.0 (out of a possible 10) rating by Pitchfork, which noted that the music as heard in its reverse-engineered form is "a damn nice album." The article includes links to MP3 versions of one song from the album in reverse and forwards-running formats. [more..]

Philadelphia - Mobile application developer CellSigns on Thursday introduced Cellifieds, a mobile solution for newspapers that lets users shop local classifieds on their phones, and send stories, coupons and ads from newspaper websites' to their mobile phones. The technology has been integrated by newspapers including the Palm Beach Post. [more..]

New York - Narrowstep, a provider of Internet TV distribution services, said on Thursday that Virgin Media will use its technology to power a recently announced Internet TV offering. The site will offer full-length programming from Virgin Media Television channels such as LIVINGtv, Bravo and Trouble. VirginMedia.com currently attracts between 10 and 12 million unique monthly users. [more..]

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Mobile video company mywaves on Thursday announced a partnership with Canadian record label Nettwerk Music Group, which will use its SND2MBL application to offer fans of artists like Barenaked Ladies and Avril Lavigne the ability to view music videos on their mobile phones. The deal will also see artist podcasts -- including Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes manga podcasts -- adapted and distributed for mobile. [more..]

Singapore - Acme Mobile, a distributor of mobile entertainment content in Southeast Asia, on Thursday announced a deal with Vivendi Games Mobile, to release the company's titles across in Southeast Asia. The games will be offered on Amob.com and the wireless portals of 16 carriers in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. [more..]