Sacramento, Calif. - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. on Friday asked California's Internet service providers to follow the lead of Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint by "removing child pornography from existing servers and blocking channels" that disseminate the illegal material. Earlier this month, the three ISPs announced an agreement with New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, under which they would eliminate access to child pornography newsgroups on Usenet, and also purge any existing child pornography on their servers.

New York - Major Internet service providers Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Sprint (NYSE: S) have agreed to block access to child pornography by eliminating access to child porn newsgroups, and purging their servers of any child porn websites, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday. The companies will also collectively pay $1.1 million to fund additional efforts by the AG's office and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to remove child pornography from the Internet.

As I tour around at events talking about why brands need to have a personality, a question that comes up often is about which brands don't have a personality and suffer from facelessness. One of the most obvious categories that has built a dreadful reputation for itself is the wireless phone industry in the US. On the whole, people are distrustful, disloyal, and generally suspicious of just about anything these carriers do. The reasons are fairly obvious, from their cruel pricing structure designed to charge you for every kilobyte or nanosecond of use, to their requirement that you lock yourself into long contracts before they will give you service. In my own experience, my last month's wireless bill was 18 pages long (and I don't even have a teenager at home).

Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal in a case involving the rights of consumers to "unlock" mobile phones from a particular network, which in effect will allow a lawsuit charging AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) with unfair business practices to proceed to trial, Wired.com reported.

Culver City, Calif. - Sony Pictures Television said on Thursday that its Minisode Network, which offers condensed five-minute versions of classic TV episodes, has launched on the Sprint TV mobile TV service. Honda has signed on as the launch sponsor of the ad-supported network, which now carries 21 series. The Minisode Network registered 1.4 million streams in February across online and mobile platforms, Sony said.

Reston, Va. - Needing at least $3 billion to roll out its nationwide high speed WiMax network, Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) and partner Clearwire are now in talks with cable giant Comcast (NASD: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Hollywood, Fla. - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace announced on Thursday a partnership with Sprint (NYSE: S), which will become the first U.S. carrier to link to the free MySpace Mobile website once it officially launches in early 2008. Sprint customers will not have to type in a URL to access MySpace Mobile, which will be given placement from the Sprint mobile Web portal. The portal will also provide direct links to Fox Interactive Media's IGN, FoxSports.com, RottenTomatoes.com, Photobucket, AskMen and the company's network of local broadcast affiliate sites.

San Francisco - MobiTV, a provider of mobile audio and video services for cell phones, said on Monday that it has surpassed three million subscriptions for its services worldwide, having added a million new subscribers over the past six months. The company provides both branded and white-label services to more than 20 operators internationally. MobiTV also said it has appointed Charlie Nooney, the company's new CEO, to the additional role of chairman. Separately, MobiTV said that it has signed a multi-year deal to continue providing its services to U.S. wireless carrier Sprint.

Overland Park, Kan. - Sprint on Monday became the first U.S. wireless network operator to launch its own network of original mobile TV programming, SEE (Sprint Exclusive Entertainment), which will feature two-minute clips on sports, music and entertainment news. Production partner Intersport will help create more than 150 new clips each week, with celebrity hosts to include Marshall Faulk, Trev Alberts and Joe Girardi for sports; former VH1 VJ Rachel Perry for music; and content from CelebTV.com host Kelli Zink in entertainment.

Atlanta - EarthLink announced that it will invest up to $100 million of additional funds in its wireless voice and data services joint venture, Helio.

Mountain View, Calif. - Loopt on Tuesday announced the launch of its social mapping service with U.S. mobile carrier Sprint. The $2.99 per month service will let customers nationwide find and connect with friends using the GPS capabilities on some Sprint phones, send proximity-based messages and view geo-tagged photos and content on their phones.

Santa Monica, Calif. - In an advertising first, Sprint will sponsor a major label song distributed on file-sharing networks.

Sprint has formed a “4 G Local Content Group” that will handle “local news, weather, sports, traffic, directories, user reviews and other User Generated Content.” All this from a recruitment ad it placed for “an innovative and creative Product Manager to leverage the network’s location and presence capabilities to build new utility and value for our customers.”

Oakland, Calif. - Pandora, the personalized Web radio service, announced on Wednesday that its service is now available on cell phones to Sprint subscribers.

Burbank, Calif. - The Disney-ABC Television group announced on Tuesday an agreement with Sprint, to provide news and entertainment programming from ABC and Disney to mobile subscribers. The deal includes both full-length programs like "Grey's Anatomy," "Nightline" and "Hannah Montana," and three linear channels that stream continuous scheduled programming throughout the day.

Time Warner Inc. today announced that the Company and Chris Albrecht have agreed that he will no longer serve as chairman and CEO of Home Box Office, effective immediately.
http://www.hbo.com

New York - Mindshare Entertainment announced on Tuesday that it will produce an original Web series on motherhood, starring Leah Remini of "The King of Queens," that will incorporate storylines generated by moms. Debuting on May 11 on MSN, the five-episode "In the Motherhood" series will be directed by Peter Lauer. The webisodes will also be viewable on the websites of Sprint and Suave, the series' two sponsors, and promoted on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and in People magazine.

Tokyo - Japanese wireless carrier KDDI plans this month to launch a service in the U.S. for Japanese residents and visiting tourists, Billboard reported, citing an article in The Asahi Shimbun. The KDDI Mobile service will use leased space on Sprint's wireless network, and offer ringtones and social networking services, in addition to discount calls to Japan. KDDI eventually plans to expand the offering to other Asian U.S. residents, as well as offer services in Europe and other Asian nations.

Orlando, Fla. - Viacom on Wednesday debuted a number of new mobile media offerings across its MTV, Comedy Central and other properties, with MTV Networks announcing that Pepsi and Intel have signed on as charter sponsors of its mobile programming. MTV Networks also expanded its partnership with Sprint; the carrier now offers 14 live streaming and VOD mobile channels. Viacom's Comedy Central, meanwhile, introduced a new 40-level mobile game called "South Park 10: The Game," developed by RealNetworks' mobile game studio.

Orlando, Fla. - Wireless carrier Sprint has announced that next month it will slash the cost of full-track downloads on its mobile music service, from $2.50 each to 99 cents.