Entertainment

Warner Music Group acknowledged Tuesday it is still interested in purchasing EMI Group, its slumping rival in the troubled music industry, but such a deal is unlikely to solve the long-term problems facing both companies. New York-based Warner Music confirmed it approached EMI on Jan. 24 to discuss ...

The United States is considering taking legal action against China for continued violations of intellectual property rights, as well as the use of subsidies in a broad array of manufactured goods. The U.S. may pursue its case to the World Trade Organization -- an action it has previously threatened ...

Time Warner was finally able to complete the spin-off of its cable division Tuesday, a move that investors have long banked on as a way for the media giant to focus on growing its TV, print, movie and online businesses. Time Warner Cable became a standalone public company after a judge put a Chapter...

MySpace has launched a pilot project that will help the popular social networking site identify uploaded content that may infringe on someone's copyright. Its new content management and antipiracy system, which it licensed from Audible Magic, can recognize certain uploaded copyrighted content, match...

Music company EMI Group is reportedly in talks with online retailers about providing its digital music catalog in an unprotected MP3 format, allowing downloaded songs to be played on multiple devices. The company is in talks with RealNetworks, eMusic, MusicNet and Viacom's MTV Networks. This follows...

Change is the order of the day in the m-commerce market. New smartphones and other handheld digital devices are hitting the marketplace in a torrent, as media convergence accelerates the drive toward "quad play" devices and network services. The telecom and media industries are undergoing a fundamen...

Six months after pulling the plug on efforts to become a mobile virtual network operator, ESPN Mobile has agreed to make its video, scores and other content available on the network of Verizon Wireless. The two companies said Mobile ESPN content would be made available to V Cast phones through an ex...

In response to Tuesday's open letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs calling for major record labels to stop requiring digital rights management technology on music sold online, the Recording Industry Association of America is now calling on Apple to license the antipiracy technology it uses to protect mu...

The vow Tuesday by Apple CEO Steve Jobs -- that he would willingly remove copyright protection from songs sold at his company's iTunes store -- was cheered by those who've been arguing that digital rights management systems are a failure. Advocates for music-sharing freedom said they expect music la...

Wal-Mart Stores has launched a new service providing movies and television episodes for sale online. The company will offer about 3,000 movies and TV shows on the beta version of the online download store, at price points that -- true to Wal-Mart's ethos -- are cheaper than many of those offered at ...

Apple Inc. has reached a settlement with the company that manages the Beatles' intellectual property holdings, ending a trademark lawsuit and possibly paving the way for Beatles songs to be sold through the iTunes Music Store. On Monday, Apple announced the pact with The Beatles' music publisher App...

New technological advances, as well as legal and regulatory changes, are tearing down long-standing barriers between industries. Digital voice, data and multimedia content delivery operations are converging with both fixed and wireless telecommunications services. In addition, a host of telecoms, ca...

Media conglomerate Viacom demanded on Friday that Google's video service YouTube remove from its Web pages as many as 100,000 video clips containing copyrighted material. The two sides had been negotiating a licensing agreement that would allow Viacom-owned content on the YouTube site when talks bro...

For the past three years, a Chicago consulting firm has assumed a Grinch-like role with its annual estimate of worker productivity losses attributable to the Super Bowl. Those losses, though, may actually be gains for many businesses, according to the firm's top executive. Money lost due to producti...

The Microsoft executive who led the company's Zune product launch, among other things, is retiring from the company, officials announced Wednesday. Bryan Lee, corporate vice president of Microsoft's entertainment business, plans to leave the company in the next several weeks to pursue personal inter...