Entertainment

The Canadian government has proposed several copyright amendments that would serve to crack down on file sharing, preventing Internet users from freely swapping music, books and movies online. "This is terrific news," said Canadian Recording Industry Association President Graham Henderson. "Canada i...

The mobile adult services market is set to reach US$5 billion by 2010, according to a new wireless Internet applications service report from Strategy Analytics. Analysts said fear of consumer backlash and government regulation is stalling wireless adult content growth stateside. Jupiter Research ana...

Illegal file-sharing through peer-to-peer networks continues to be a problem for copyright owners despite efforts by various industry groups and court rulings. However, recent developments might provide hope for copyright owners as zealous prosecution of users by the entertainment industry across th...

TiVo announced today it has been awarded eight new patents in the U.S. and abroad, with five awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that, the company said, cover important aspects of DVD software and hardware design. TiVo also received three grants from the Chinese and Japanese pat...

Britain has the dubious honor of being named the world's largest market for downloading pirated TV, according to Internet monitoring company Envisional. According to the firm, increased bandwidth, technological advances and a growing demand for early access to popular American TV shows is driving th...

Following competitors' footsteps on a path that promises to obliterate the line between what once were standalone devices, Sony Ericsson said it plans to launch a line of phones under the Walkman brand that are much a portable music player as a phone handset. The devices are just the latest to take ...

Nokia and RealNetworks have announced an expansion of their long-term relationship to enable Nokia to ship RealNetworks' media formats on a wide variety of its advanced phones. "The new licensing and development model with Real fully supports Nokia's multi-format strategy and our commitment to resp...

Despite spending a reported US$2.4 million for 30 seconds of television time during Sunday's Super Bowl, some advertisers failed to ensure their Web sites could handle additional traffic their campaigns generated. According to Keynote Systems, several major companies saw the performance of their Web...

As part of a search industry move toward multi-media, Google today launched a new service that enables users to search the content of television programs. Google will let people search for text in closed-captioning of television shows on PBS, the NBA, Fox News and C-SPAN, among others. The news come...

One day you are hot, the next you're not. Such is the music business. A day after the International Federation of Phonographic Industries released data demonstrating that the market for digital music is becoming mainstream, another international study reveals consumer dissatisfaction with the channe...

The market for digital music downloads is becoming mainstream, according to a report issued today by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI), which showed paid downloads increasing more than tenfold in 2004. Analysts said the popularity of downloading music from the Internet h...

On Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts, the team with one of the most potent offenses in the history of the National Football League, will face off against defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots, ending a week's worth of hype and predictions. As the game unfolds on the field, the owners of bo...

Napster today said its bid to turn what was a legendary brand in the underground music world into a contender in the legitimate online music space gained ground last year, fueled by a year-end spurt of new subscribers. Napster said its subscriber base was up 50 percent in the quarter that ended in D...

Taking a stab at being near the forefront of the mobile commerce and streaming music movements, Sprint today launched Music Choice, a mobile music service that gives users of its multimedia phones access to a catalog of digital music feeds. The service, the first streaming music service available fo...

Melodeo and Warner Music Group today announced they have signed an agreement to allow consumers to securely download entire tracks from WMG's music catalog directly to their mobile phones. Melodeo, a Seattle-based company, provides music to wireless subscribers through a mobile-music solution instal...