We7 to Launch Mobile Music Service on iPhone in U.K.

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

London
– We7, an operator of online music stores and services, said on Wednesday that
it has received approval from Apple to launch its Premium Plus streaming
service on the App Store for the iPhone. Set to debut on March 1, the service
will offer unlimited streaming of 5 million songs to computers and iPhones for
about $15.37 per month. The service will initially be available online in the U.K.;
the company also plans an Android version of the service.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ui6gc
(Hypebot)

http://www.we7.com

PeerPong Nabs $2.8 Million for Social Search Engine

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles
– PeerPong, the developer of a social search engine service, has raised $2.8
million in funding from Doll Capital Management, First Round Capital, Charles
River Ventures and Partech International, PaidContent reported.

The start-up
was founded by former RockYou chief revenue officer Ro Choy, who also
previously was at eBay.

The company is "building a new approach for
getting answers from people who know them, building the most comprehensive
community and index of expertise on the web."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ui6c6
(PaidContent)

http://peerpong.com

Meltwater Group Acquires Social Media Monitor BuzzGain

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
9

San Francisco
– Meltwater Group, a provider of media monitoring services, announced on Wednesday
that it has acquired BuzzGain, a social media monitoring firm.

While the
companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal, PaidContent pegged the
purchase price at $4 million, including earnouts.

Founded in Norway in 2001,
Meltwater monitors the traditional news media for its 18,000 clients, and has
more recently expanded its services to online media.

The company plans to
integrate Sunnyvale, Calif.-based BuzzGain’s service into its own Meltwater
Buzz social media monitoring offering, which it says covers more than 10
million discussions per day in 10 different languages.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ui69d

http://snipurl.com/ui690
(PaidContent)

http://www.meltwater.com

http://buzzgain.com

RapidShare Ordered to Proactively Block Textbook Uploads

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Hamburg,
Germany – A
German court has ordered free file-hosting site RapidShare to proactively block
uploads of copyrighted textbooks, TorrentFreak reported.

The service was sued
in February by textbook publishers including Macmillan, Elsevier, McGraw-Hill
and Pearson, and a court in Hamburg ruled earlier this month that RapidShare must
monitor uploads and ensure that 148 titles are not made available to its users.

Failure to comply with the court ruling could result in $339,000 in fines, and
jail time for executives.

"This ruling is an important step forward. Not
only does it affirm that file-sharing copyrighted content without permission is
against the law, but it attaches a hefty financial punishment to the host, in
this case Rapidshare, for noncompliance," said Tom Allen, CEO of the
Association of American Publishers.

Last year, a German court similarly ordered
Rapidshare to proactively filter media whose copyrights were controlled by
German rightsholder organization GEMA.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ui65x
(TorrentFreak)

http://snipurl.com/ui66f
(DMW previous coverage)

http://www.rapidshare.com

Yelp Faces Class Action Suit Over Alleged "Extortion Scheme"

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco
– Yelp, the community business reviews site, has been hit with a class action
lawsuit that claims it has engaged in unfair business practices, such as looking
to "extort" ad deals from companies seeking to have negative reviews
of their businesses removed, TechCrunch reported.

The suit was filed in federal
court in Los Angeles on behalf of a veterinary
hospital in Long Beach, Calif. that alleges Yelp demanded payments
of around $300 per month in exchange for removing a negative review on the
site.

"The allegations are demonstrably false, since many businesses that
advertise on Yelp have both negative and positive reviews," a Yelp
spokesperson told TechCrunch.

"These businesses realize that both kinds of
feedback provide authenticity and value. Running a good business is hard;
filing a lawsuit is easy. While we haven’t seen the suit in question, we will
dispute it aggressively."

 

Related Links:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/24/yelp-class-action-lawsuit

http://www.yelp.com

Nintendo to Release Larger-screened DSi XL in U.S. Next Month

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco
– Nintendo on Wednesday introduced a new version of its DS handheld game
system, the DSi XL, which boasts a screen that is 93% bigger than the current
DSi model.

The DSi XL, which is already available in Japan,
will be released in the U.S.
on March 28 with a price tag of $190.

Nintendo said it sold a record 11 million
DS units in 2009, and 420,000 in January.

 

Related Links:
http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=22444

Yahoo, Twitter Ink Content-sharing Deal

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Sunnyvale,
Calif. – Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) on Wednesday
announced a global content-sharing partnership with Twitter, which will see
Yahoo users able to access their Twitter feeds across many Yahoo properties, and
see real-time Twitter public updates in search results.

Yahoo users will be
able to update their Twitter status and share content from Yahoo in their
Twitter stream.

Twitter updates will also appear across Yahoo media properties
including News, Finance, Entertainment and Sports.

The real-time search
integration is available immediately, while other aspects will launch later
this year.

"The information in one single tweet can travel light-years
farther with this Yahoo integration," said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
"Tweets in more places brings relevance where and when you need it
most."

Yahoo also recently announced a similar deal with Facebook,
enabling easier sharing of content across the two companies’ sites.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ui5qk

Cablevision Introduces PC to TV Media Relay Service

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Bethpage,
N.Y. – Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), the nation’s
fifth-largest cable TV provider with three million New York-area subscribers,
on Wednesday announced the launch of a new service that lets subscribers relay
content from their PCs for viewing on their televisions.

The PC to TV Media
Relay service will allow users to stream photos, music, home videos, Internet
streaming video and audio, email, documents, spreadsheets and desktop widgets
to their televisions.

The service will use a secure connection to stream the
content over Cablevision’s network "to a dedicated channel viewable only
by that customer."

"With our PC to TV Media Relay service, we are
putting an end to the need for families to huddle around their laptops or PCs
to watch content together," said Tom Rutledge, Cablevision’s COO.

"This
new service will make it easy for our television customers to take broadband
services including Internet video, as well as family photos or anything else
displayed on a computer screen and move it to the television with the click of
the mouse."

Cablevision said it intends to launch a technical trial of the service in June.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ui4ju

http://www.cablevision.com

Italian Court Convicts Google Execs Over YouTube Video

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Milan – An Italian court has
convicted three Google (NASD:  GOOG) executives of violating the privacy of a child with Down’s
syndrome, after a video of the child being bullied in a Turin schoolyard was posted to the company’s
YouTube video site. The executives were acquitted on charges of defamation, but
received six-month suspended sentences on the privacy violation charges.

Google
said in a statement on its blog that it will appeal "this astonishing
decision," which the company said "attacks the very principles of
freedom on which the Internet is built."

Google called the video in
question "reprehensible," and maintains that it "took it down
within hours of being notified by the Italian police."

The company added
that it worked with local police to identify the uploader who, along with
several other classmates, was sentenced to community service.

None of the Google executives convicted —
senior vice president and chief legal officer
David Drummond; former Google Italy
board member George De Los Reyes; and global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer — reside in Italy or were present at the court proceedings.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ui45m
(Google blog post)

http://snipurl.com/ui42g
(Reuters)

http://snipurl.com/ui417
(PaidContent)

Cinetic Co-founder Debuts Investment Firm ErGo Media Capital

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York – Cinetic Media co-founder Matt Littin on
Wednesday launched ErGo Media Capital, a new entertainment and media investment
firm that will provide venture capital and private equity funding to film,
video game, music TV and new media firms.

The firm is backed by ErGo Ventures,
a private investment firm with holdings across the aerospace, food and wine,
real estate and technology sectors.

New York-based ErGo Media Capital said
it will provide up to $15 million in equity per transaction, and pursue
opportunities both alone and alongside strategic partners like other venture
capital firms, film distributors and video game publishers.

"With
revolutionary changes taking place in technology and consumer behavior, and a
historic recession further pressuring traditional business models, the
entertainment and media landscape is being reshaped," said Littin.

"The company is positioning itself at the leading-edge of these changes,
providing risk capital to innovative companies at a moment when financing is
relatively tight. It’s an exciting moment to be launching our firm."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ui3zg

http://www.ergomediacapital.com

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