Los Angeles - Photobucket, a popular site for storing, sharing, and publishing visual digital media, has concluded terms of a sale to Myspace, News Corporation's social network, according to the tech gossip rag Valleywag. If the deal is for real, it will be an interesting resolution to a quarrelsome but symbiotic relationship between the two companies.

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New York - Major record label Warner Music Group plans to lay off 400 staffers as part of a restructuring that includes greater focus on digital distribution, Billboard reported, citing unnamed sources. [more..]

San Francisco - NBC Universal and Viacom on Friday submitted a friend of the court brief in a federal case where a man is suing Google's YouTube for copyright infringement of his video content, Reuters reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - At least six independent record labels plan to entirely remove or else limit their catalogs on digital music subscription service eMusic, taking exception to the service's pricing model, Billboard reported. [more..]

London - The developers of anti-piracy technology used on next-generation DVDs plan to pursue the thousands of websites that have published a software key that can crack the security, the BBC reported. [more..]

New York - Sixty-two percent of U.S. gamers are now playing online, with the majority playing online PC games, while a growing number are utilizing the broadband connections on their Xbox 360 or other game console, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group. [more..]

San Francisco - A number of journalists whose phone records were obtained by private investigators working for Hewlett-Packard -- which at the time was looking into boardroom leaks to the media -- have decided to sue the company for invasion of privacy, CNET News.com reported on Monday. [more..]

New York - The audience for newspaper websites is growing at nearly twice the rate of the overall online audience, according to a report from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) that cites Nielsen/NetRatings data. [more..]

Los Angeles - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which organizes the Academy Awards, last week filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the owner of the website Oscarwatch.com, according to The Hollywood Reporter. [more..]

New York - About.com, a unit of The New York Times Company that publishes original content created by a network of experts and enthusiasts, announced on Monday that it has acquired ConsumerSearch.com, an online publisher of meta-reviews, for $33 million. [more..]

Burlingame, Calif. - Mig33, the developer of a mobile Internet community with more than 4 million users, said on Monday that it has raised $10 million in its first round of funding, co-led by Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures. [more..]

New York - Warner Bros. Television Group will make its television programming available for the Joost online video service, the two companies announced on Monday. Warner Bros. will create sci-fi and "Before They Were Stars" branded channels on Joost to feature episodes of shows including "Babylon 5," "Growing Pains" and "Welcome Back, Kotter." New York-based Joost also on Monday announced a similar deal with broadband entertainment site Heavy.com, and recently signed agreements to add feature-length video content from Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System, Sony, and Hasbro Inc. to its peer-to-peer-based, ad-supported streaming service. [more..]

Los Angeles - Ubiquity Partners, a provider of online marketing services, said on Monday that it has facilitated an online partnership between Twisted Pictures, producers of the "Saw" horror film franchise, and online entertainment site Break.com, that will see the two collaborate on an online series of original horror films. Scheduled to air this summer, "The Internet Killer" will comprise a series of 30 webisodes. [more..]

Toronto - News Corp.'s MySpace on Monday announced the official launch of its MySpace Canada site, which is localized and available in both French and English. The addition marks the fifteenth localized version of MySpace to launch overseas since 2004. The company said it named Jane Tattersall, former marketing manager at EMI Music Canada, as director of marketing for the Canadian site. [more..]

West Hollywood, Calif. - IAC's Ticketmaster announced on Monday that it will provide purchasers of every concert ticket from Ticketmaster.com with access to a free, ten-song digital music sampler of emerging and established artists. In addition, the company will give purchasers of every concert ticket sold between May 28 and Sept. 3 one free song download of their choice from Apple's iTunes Store. [more..]

Los Angeles - The nation's two leading online movie ticket sellers -- Fandango and MovieTickets.com -- announced on Monday that "Spider-Man 3" set single-day ticket sales records for both of their services. Fandango, which was recently acquired by cable TV provider Comcast, said that ticket sales for the film on Friday broke both its daily and hourly sales records, when the site sold ten tickets per second over multiple hours. Meanwhile, MovieTickets.com -- a joint venture between a number of theater owners, AOL and Viacom -- said "Spider-Man 3" broke its single-day sales record, beating out last summer's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." [more..]

New York - Nielsen/NetRatings, a provider of Internet media audience measurement and market research, announced on Monday the launch of VideoCensus, an online video measurement service that combines panel and census research methodologies. To facilitate reporting, online video publishers attach a piece of NetRatings code to their video delivery platforms, which then allows NetRatings to collect a precise census count of viewing activity. The service will also factor in data from NetRatings desktop meters, deployed on thousands of users' PCs worldwide. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - Tumri on Monday announced the launch of its integrated merchandising and advertising network, which allows publishers to control the look and types of ads displayed on their websites. Founded in 2004, Mountain View, Calif.-based Tumri's AdPods units allow publishers to customize product categories, offers and merchants, so they're most attractive for their readers. [more..]

San Diego - Eyespot, a provider of online tools that let users upload and remix videos, said on Monday that it has partnered with Audible Magic, a provider of copyright content identification and filtering technology. Under the agreement, Eyespot will implement Audible Magic technology to give copyright holders control over what songs are available for users to add to the video mash-ups they create on Eyespot. The company has previously partnered on video mash-up promotions with Paramount Pictures, the NBA and Jive Records. [more..]

Harrisburg, Pa. - Hoping to counter what they perceive as a liberal bias on video-sharing site YouTube, a pair of former aides to President Ronald Reagan have launched QubeTV, a new site featuring user-generated content from conservatives. The site features videos about politics, as well as content in categories such as music, sports, religion and media. "For decades members of the modern conservative movement have complained about a liberal bias in the media," said former Reagan campaign aide and QubeTV chairman Charlie Gerow. "The conservative response to this bias has, in the past, been limited by the technology of the day. That has changed." [more..]

San Mateo, Calif. - Mobile entertainment publisher I-play announced on Monday a deal with Universal Studios, to make classic movie clips available for purchase and download to mobile phones. Initially available to Sprint, Verizon, Rogers and Amp'd Mobile subscribers are clips of films like "King Kong," "The 40 Year Old-Virgin," "Animal House" and "The Breakfast Club." [more..]

Detroit, Mich. - Gas Station TV, an Internet-based digital TV network at gas station pumps, announced on Monday that Disney's ESPN has added content to its roster of programming. The company previously signed a similar deal with Disney's ABC News and ABC-owned affiliates to provide local news, weather and traffic updates. [more..]

Hollywood, Calif. - uWink, the gaming-centric restaurant chain launched by Atari and Chuck E. Cheese founder Nolan Bushnell, announced on Monday that it plans to open a new location at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles. The new 6,500 square foot uWink restaurant -- which will feature touch-screen table displays capable of both placing orders and playing games -- is scheduled to open by early 2008. [more..]