Washington - The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) annual undercover sting operation where underage consumers try to buy R-rated movie tickets, DVDs and M-rated video games has found a dramatic improvement at video game retailers, where its secret shoppers were able to buy M-rated games just 20% of the time -- down from 42% in 2007 and 85% in 2000. The video game industry and retail partners also fared better than movie theaters, where secret shoppers gained access to R-rated films 36% of the time, and DVD retailers, where R-rated title purchases were successful 47% of the time.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Online social network Facebook on Thursday introduced a number of new privacy protections intended to safeguard younger users from sexual predators and cyberbullies, the Associated Press reported.

Washington - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved the PRO-IP Act, a bill pushed for by Hollywood studios that would beef up law enforcement dedicated to protecting intellectual property, as well as increase penalties for piracy. "We applaud the members of the House of Representatives for passing the PRO-IP Act, H.R. 4279," said Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) president Dan Glickman. "It is a comprehensive, bipartisan measure that will strengthen our nation's economy and generate more jobs for American workers by bolstering protections for intellectual property."

New York - New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Monday introduced new legislation, endorsed by leaders of the New York State Senate and Assembly, that would increase penalties on those caught trying to record films in movie theaters for piracy purposes.

New York - A federal judge in New York has created a formula for calculating the royalties that large webcasters AOL (NYSE: TWX), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) must pay songwriters and music publishers for streaming their songs between 2002 and 2009, which could provide just one performing rights organization, ASCAP, as much as $100 million in payments. U.S. District Judge William Conner's ruling stipulates that the webcasters must pay 2.5% of music-related revenue to ASCAP's 320,000 members; by that math, for 2006, AOL owes $5.95 million, and Yahoo owes $6.76 million.

Washington - The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved the PRO-IP Act, a bill that would provide more resources for the government to combat intellectual property crimes, increase penalties, and create a White House-level position to coordinate efforts. The bill, which was already amended to remove a portion that would have penalized each track on compilation CDs as a separate infringement, will now move to a vote in the full House; a Senate version of the bill was introduced last fall.

Washington - A bipartisan group of powerful lawmakers this week introduced legislation that would mitigate the legal risk and potential damages associated with the use of "orphan works," or songs, books or other copyrighted media where the creator or owner cannot be identified. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are sponsoring the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 in the Senate, while House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced The Orphan Works Act of 2008 in the House.

Washington - The Justice Department is investigating whether an advertising tie-up between Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) and Google (NASD: GOOG) violates antitrust laws, Reuters reported. Under a two-week test, scheduled to end this week, Yahoo is using Google's online ad system to provide relevant ads alongside its search results.

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.

Washington - Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), a high-ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, on Friday wrote to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking the agency to block the $5 billion merger of satellite radio firms XM (NASD: XMSR) and Sirius (NASD: SIRI), Reuters reported.

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) announced on Thursday that it has received a second request for information from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) related to its proposed acquisition of fellow game publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO).

Philadelphia - Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation's largest cable TV company and a provider of high-speed Internet to 13.2 million subscribers, on Tuesday announced that it will lead an industry-wide effort to create a "P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities," which would "clarify what choices and controls consumers should have when using P2P applications as well as what processes and practices ISPs should use to manage P2P applications running on their networks." The company said it partnered with Pando Networks, a provider of peer-to-peer based content delivery network services, on the initiative, and will work with the company to help migrate to a protocol-agnostic network management technique by the end of the year.

Brussels - Members of the European Parliament voted 314 to 297 this week to approve a measure that asks member nations not to enact laws whose penalties would interrupt users' Internet access, such as France's recent policy that compels ISPs to disconnect the accounts of repeat file-swappers. The wording calls for the European Commission and member states to "avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of Internet access."

Washington - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has levied a total of $6 million in fines against many of the top electronics retailers in the U.S., for violating rules on labeling analog televisions they sell to inform consumers the devices will not be able to receive digital signals after the switch to digital broadcasting next February. The FCC levied fines against retailers including Sears ($1.1 million), Wal-Mart ($992,000), Circuit City ($712,000), Target ($296,000) and Best Buy ($280,000).

Pity the poor regulator who, someday soon, will be faced with evaluating some proposed combination of all or parts of Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and/or News Corp. (is there anyone else left?). What yardstick would you even apply? Someday, they're all going to be in the same combination of the content creation/distribution business, online advertising, applications development and platforms and social networking anyway. It's really only a question of how they get there and when, not whether or even should they. Trying to come to grips with that through the keyhole of any one deal or company is probably not a formula for a coherent regulatory framework for the future of the digital media industry.

While US webcasters may think that they have legal issues - whether it be the Internet radio music royalties that have been such a concern (see our coverage, here) or the copyright and other liability issues that surround user-generated content on various websites (see our story here), they face nothing like new rules that were recently adopted for webcasters in China. The new rules require government permits from two separate Chinese government agencies before webcasting operations can begin. In addition, the rules appear to require ownership and control of webcasting operations by state-owned companies. A memo on these new rules, prepared by attorneys from Davis Wright Tremaine's Shanghai office, can be found here.

Washington - An information hearing on virtual worlds before a U.S. House subcommittee was attended by both "Second Life" founder Philip Rosedale and a number of avatars who appeared on a video screen in the hearing room, Reuters reported. "It is likely that virtual world activities are somewhat more policeable and the law somewhat more maintainable within virtual worlds," Rosedale said, asserting that government intervention is not needed. "The virtual world has a degree of accountability...and traceability, which actually in many ways is better than the real world."

Wilton, Conn. - The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), a non-profit that represents video game enthusiasts, said on Tuesday that it has launched a Web-based initiative called Gamers for Net Neutrality. The ECA and its partners in the initiative -- SavetheInternet.com and Games for Change -- said the site aims to inform gamers about the issue. "Why let the telecom giants dictate what speed we play our games, view our video, or listen to music?" said Suzanne Seggerman, president and co-founder of Games for Change. "Gamers, as one of the largest audiences on the internet, need to act now -- before it's too late."