Los Angeles - The major record labels that sued Tanya Andersen (Atlantic v. Andersen) for infringing their copyrights on file-sharing networks, then eventually dropped their case, have been ordered by a federal court in Oregon to pay her nearly $108,000 in attorneys fees and costs, P2PNet reports.

Los Angeles - The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week expanded the ordinance that allows for the county to shutter a property that becomes a "public nuisance," such as in gang or drug-related instances, to include properties used to illegally manufacture and sell recordings and audiovisual works. "This ordinance is an important milestone in our efforts to curb piracy in Los Angeles," said Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). "In its approval of this ordinance, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have officially recognized that piracy isn't just an industry problem, but one that has a significant impact on the local economy as well."

San Francisco - Project Playlist, a service that aggregates streaming music links into playlists, and has been sued for copyright infringement by three of the four major record labels, has hired former Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) CEO Jay Berman as a consultant, CNET News.com reports. Project Playlist CEO Jeremy Riney told News.com that he will shut his site down if he is not able to license music legally from the labels; the sole major not party to the lawsuit against the company, Sony BMG, is reportedly negotiating with Project Playlist.

Los Angeles - A federal judge has rejected a pillar of the recording industry's argument in the copyright infringement lawsuits it has filed against file-swappers, ruling that simply "making available" songs in a shared folder on their computers does not equate to infringement. In Atlantic v. Howell, Judge Neil V. Wake has dismissed the label's motion for summary judgment against Pamela and Jeffrey Howell, saying in his ruling that "merely making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder's exclusive right of distribution."

New York - Divisions of three of the four major record labels on Monday filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Project Playlist, a site that lets users create playlists from streaming songs served from all over the Internet, Reuters reported. For its part, Project Playlist maintains that it does not host any music files, but instead merely links to files on many third-party sites, including many on record label websites.

Los Angeles - While U.S. CD shipments were down 17.5% in 2007, digital formats now account for 23% of U.S. recording revenues, up from 16.1% in 2006 and 9% in 2005, according to year-end shipment data calculated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). A total of 809.9 million digital song downloads were sold in 2007, a 38% increase from 2006, along with 42.5 million digital albums, up 54% from the prior year.

Washington - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) spent nearly $2.1 million in 2007 lobbying Congress for favorable copyright-related legislation, Ars Technica reported, citing the group's disclosure via the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

New York - A federal judge in New York has ruled that a user's "making available" of songs or other copyrighted files using file-sharing software does not in and of itself construe infringement, in what could prove to be a setback in the record industry's legal campaign against such activities, CNET News.com reported.

London - Major record label EMI, whose new private equity owners had threatened to leave the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) trade group over costs associated with membership and the group's anti-piracy efforts, has decided to stick with the organization after a cost-saving plan was agreed upon.

Washington - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced this week that it has sent another round of 401 "pre-litigation settlement letters" to users of campus networks at 12 universities alleged to have engaged in illegal file-sharing, making for a total of more than 5,400 such letters sent since the record label trade group began the practice a year ago.

DMW’s CEO & Publisher provides a wrap-up of the top stories of the week. Who’s hot, who’s not and what’s the industry buzz?

In the days following Microsoft’s (NASD: MSFT) announcement of its unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), much of the news focused on the battle between Google and Microsoft to color the other’s motives as anti-competitive. As reports surfaced that Yahoo may try to avoid being acquired by Microsoft by giving control of its search advertising to Google in exchange for a large revenue share (although nothing has made public by either Google or Yahoo on this), Microsoft reportedly began lobbying government officials to block any such deal between the two on antitrust grounds setting the stage for what is likely to be a long and public battle between Google and Microsoft over control of the Internet.

Washington - The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) began hearing arguments from music publishers, record labels, and digital music distributors on Monday, on how much songwriters and music publishers should be paid when music is streamed or downloaded, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Los Angeles - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has hired Kathy Leodler, former acting special agent in charge of the FBI's office in San Diego, as the new director of investigations for its Western region anti-piracy unit. Leodler will work with law enforcement engaged in both physical and online music piracy investigations. "Kathy's tremendous experience directing teams in sensitive and complex domestic and international investigations is supreme," said Brad Buckles, EVP of anti-piracy for the RIAA. "Her ability to utilize sophisticated techniques and tactical response will be a huge asset to the hard work we do to further our mission."

Portland, Ore. - A woman sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for illegal file-sharing, whose case was dismissed with prejudice for lack of evidence, will receive attorneys fees from the record label trade group after a federal judge affirmed her motion yesterday, the Recording Industry vs. the People blog reports.

San Francisco - The U.S. Justice Department has filed a legal brief defending the copyright law that enabled an award of $220,000 in damages to the major record labels, in a copyright infringement case they brought against Jammie Thomas, a Minnesota woman who was found by a jury to have shared 24 songs on a file-sharing network, CNET News.com reports.

Los Angeles - A federal judge has tossed the antitrust lawsuit filed by peer-to-peer file-sharing software distributor LimeWire against the major record labels, the Associated Press reported.

London - Major record label EMI, which was recently acquired by private equity firm Terra Firma, is considering leaving record industry trade groups including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), as a means of cutting costs, Reuters reported.

Washington - The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee on Thursday approved a major college spending bill that includes provisions urging schools to adopt anti-piracy programs on their campus networks, CNET News.com reported. However, it appears that the provisions -- which include investigating "technology-based deterrents" to file-sharing and looking into alternative, legal download services -- will not be directly tied to receiving federal financial aid.