Washington - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) on Thursday introduced a bill that would vacate the recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision that would greatly increase royalties webcasters must pay to stream music online. [more..]

New York - Joost, the peer-to-peer-based streaming TV service founded by the creators of Kazaa and Skype, announced on Thursday that it has raised $45 million in a new round of financing, co-led by Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital. [more..]

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s MySpace online social network on Thursday announced plans to host a series of Presidential Town Hall meetings on college campuses, each of which will feature an hour-long dialogue between one candidate and the MySpace community. [more..]

San Francisco - Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, with the legal backing of digital civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), has contested an attempt by major label Universal Music Group to have her podcast criticizing one of its artists removed from YouTube under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). [more..]

Sydney - The Australian government has set aside about $10 million in the country's federal budget to combat piracy, Variety reported. [more..]

San Jose, Calif. - Mobile entertainment distributor PlayPhone announced on Thursday that it has raised $18.75 million in its third round of venture capital financing, led by Scale Venture Partners. [more..]

New York - Podcast aggregation site Odeo announced on Thursday that its assets have been acquired by SonicMountain, a provider of digital media hosting and search services. [more..]

Los Angeles - The National Basketball Association (NBA) has launched its own online video store, offering full games from this season's playoffs as well the finals series. Regular season games and games from previous seasons will cost $2.99 each, while playoffs games will sell for $12.99 each; a package that includes all playoffs games costs $79.99. The league has also been offering clips on a branded YouTube channel since February, which has streamed more than 14 million videos. The NBA had previously sold programming through the Google Video Marketplace, but chose not to renew that agreement. [more..]

Santa Clara, Calif. - Wireless developer Motorola plans next week to introduce a new 3G handset capable of displaying full-motion video and feature-length films stored on removable Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, Reuters reported. Motorola CEO Ed Zander announced the device at the Software 2007 conference on Wednesday, saying it would first be distributed in Europe, where 3G networks are more pervasive. The company did not name its movie memory card partner. [more..]

New York - Yahoo on Thursday announced an agreement with USA Network that will see music from emerging artists played on Yahoo Music's Launchcast radio service promoted on USA Network programs. Under the deal, Yahoo Music will track consumer feedback on independent and unsigned artists on Launchcast, and recommend well-performing artists and music to USA Network. USA will then "sign" the artists for an "incubation period," utilizing their recordings for marketing and programming on the network. The companies said veteran record producer and music supervisor Spencer Proffer of Meteor 17 will oversee the project. [more..]

Columbia, Md. - Chipmaker Samsung Electro Mechanics announced on Thursday that it will introduce a new low-power, high-performance chipset for use in portable and home HD Radio receivers. Production of the chipsets, whose target applications include mobile phones, portable media players, portable navigation devices, table radios and home audio-video components, is slated for the first quarter of 2008. [more..]

Portland, Maine - Emergent Music, developer of the Goombah music recommendation and social networking community, said on Thursday that it has integrated its service with Napster's Web-based streaming music service. The deal will allow Goombah members to listen to multi-song streams of full-length tracks of recommendations for free. Goombah recommends tracks by monitoring a user's listening habits in iTunes, matching their tastes with those of other members. Goombah users will also have the option to purchase recommended tracks from Napste [more..]

New York - Knitting Factory Entertainment, which owns concert venues in New York and Los Angeles that book both avant-garde and established acts, announced on Thursday the launch of a new digital content services initiative that will provide record label partners with live concert video collection and distribution services. Knitting Factory Digital Services will utilize HD cameras in both venues, to offer labels live performance video customized for distribution on broadcast, Web 2.0, wireless and other platforms. [more..]

Basking Ridge, N.J. - Verizon Wireless on Thursday launched a new application that allows subscribers to create their own personalized comics on their mobile phones and send them to other phones or e-mail addresses. Developed by Advanced Mobile Applications' partner Longtail Studios, Comic Creator by AMA is available for $3.99 for monthly access. [more..]

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft-owned game developer Bungie Studios announced on Thursday that its "Halo 2" game has now amassed 5 million players on the Xbox Live online game service, two and a half years after its launch. The company added that it is nearing 700 million unique multiplayer games on Xbox Live, as well as 5 billion player-games -- where each game counts once per player in it. [more..]

Westwood, Mass. - Video game developer and publisher Turbine on Thursday announced that its "The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar" title is the top-selling PC game across North America and Europe, based on the most recent industry reports from NPD , Chart-Track (UK), GfK (France) and Media Control (Germany). [more..]

Redwood Shores, Calif. - Electronic Arts on Thursday announced the upcoming release of "The Simpsons Game," which will feature a storyline penned by the Fox TV show's writers, along with voice talent from the full cast of the show. The title is under development at EA's Redwood Shores studio for release in the fall for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, PS and Nintendo DS. [more..]

New York - Atari said on Thursday that it has signed best-selling author Lorenzo Carcaterra (Sleepers, Gangster) to pen a script for its action game "Alone in the Dark." The title is being developed by Eden Games for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and the PC. [more..]