Digital Media Wire | connecting people & knowledge » 2010 » February » 08

MySpace Music Testing Audio Ads

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Los Angeles - MySpace Music, the joint venture between the News Corp.-owned (NYSE: NWS) social network and the major record labels, is testing 30-second audio ads that users must listen to before they can access free song streams, the Associated Press reported. The ads "are timed so that a user can listen to up to 100 songs on a playlist or to a full album with just a single interruption after the first song," AP reports. The company is working with TargetSpot to sell the audio ads.

Related Links:

http://snipurl.com/ub4ht

(AP)

EA to Release Version of “Madden NFL” on Facebook

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

New York - Video game publisher Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) plans to bring a version of its popular "Madden NFL" football game franchise to Facebook, Bloomberg reports. "We have to make ‘Madden’ more accessible," EA Sports president Peter Moore told Bloomberg. "You’ll see us on Facebook going forward." Moore called the Facebook version of the game, which does not yet have a release date, a "simpler experience" than playing on a console.

Related Links:

http://snipurl.com/ub2yw

(Bloomberg)

http://maddennfl.easports.com

Barnes & Noble Replenishes Nook E-book Reader Supply

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

New York - Bookseller Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) announced on Monday that its Nook e-book reader device is now in stock at its online store, and will be rolling out in the majority of its retail stores later this week. The company, which ran out of Nook inventory for the year before Thanksgiving last year, noted that it "quickly sold out of nook stock online over the holidays due to unprecedented customer demand," but has since "ramped up production."

Related Links:

http://snipurl.com/ub48x

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook

Sony’s “Free Realms” Online Game Hits 8 Million Users

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

San Diego - Sony (NYSE: SNE) Online Entertainment said on Monday that its free, family-friendly online game "Free Realms" now counts over 8 million unique registered users. The Sims-like online game features social networking elements and also an offline physical trading card game.

Related Links:

http://snipurl.com/ub4d1

http://www.freerealms.com

Italian Court Reinstates ISP Block on The Pirate Bay

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Los Angeles – An Italian court has ruled that ISPs in the country must block access to file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, reinstating a ban that had been previously overruled, then reaffirmed by Italy’s Supreme Court, TorrentFreak reported.

The Court of Bergamo ruled in 2008 that ISPs must block The Pirate Bay, but this ruling was later overturned at the Supreme Court.

Last month, the Supreme Court reviewed the case, and reversed itself — finding that sites that offer torrent files which link to copyrighted content are illegal.

A recent [...].

Google to Add ‘Status Updates’, Other Social Features to Gmail

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) plans to add new social features to its Gmail service that include the ability to share "status updates" and recent activity on third-party services with contacts, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Expected to be introduced as soon as this week, Google hopes to bring Gmail’s 176 million users some of the same features they are accustomed to seeing on sites like Facebook, which recently passed 400 million users.

"It might look like a minor feature advance, but [...].

Google to Appeal French Court Ruling on Digital Book Index

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Paris - Google (NASD: GOOG) has appealed a French court ruling that prohibited the company from digitizing French authors’ works for inclusion in its massive book index without publishers’ permission, Agence France-Presse reported.

In December, a French court found Google liable for copyright infringement for including French works in its book index without prior permission.

Google was also ordered to pay the publisher that brought the suit, Les Editions du Seuil, $430,000 in damages.

Since the case began playing out, the French government has embarked upon creating its own national [...].

Video Caption Transcriber 3Play Media Raises Funding

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Somerville, Mass. – 3Play Media, a developer of video caption transcription technology, announced that it has raised $450,000 in funding from angel investors.

Massachusetts-based 3Play specializes in time synchronization, video captioning, archive indexing, and search.

Its customers include universities, film production companies and major corporations.

The company was founded in 2007 by four MIT graduate students.

Related Links:

http://3playmedia.com/news.html

Report: EMI Plans ‘Radical’ Cost Cuts, More Layoffs

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

London - Major record label EMI is planning "radical cost cuts, including a further reduction in its 3,500-strong workforce," in a bid to make the company more attractive to investors, the Telegraph reported. Terra Firma, the private equity firm that acquired EMI for $4.7 billion before the recession hit, is seeking an additional more than $160 million from investors, in order to meet loan repayment deadlines and prevent a possible takeover by lender Citigroup.

The cost-cutting initiative expects to shave "tens of millions of pounds" in costs, and include [...].

Report: AOL Working with Four Bidders on Sale of ICQ

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

New York - AOL (NYSE: AOL) is in serious negotiations with four bidders to sell its ICQ instant messaging service, All Things D reported on Monday.

Citing sources close to the situation, the blog said the company is discussing a price around $200 million for the service, which is most popular with Internet users in Germany and Russia.

The Wall Street Journal reported in December that AOL was in talks with Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies about a potential sale.

AOL originally paid $287 million, plus another $120 million in [...].