Digital Audio/Video News

More than two months after the online video service Hulu first announced a relationship with ABC-TV and said it would begin featuring content from the network, it has made its first shows available.

MINNEAPOLIS - It's been just a few weeks since a federal jury ruled in a music-downloading case that a Minnesota woman must pay $1.92 million.

NEW YORK - A New York congressman says in a YouTube video that Michael Jackson was a "pervert."

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Independent information about deadly riots in China's remote northwest filtered out on Twitter, YouTube and other Internet forums on Monday, frustrating government efforts to control the news.

TOKYO - NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile phone operator, said Monday it spent $45.5 million to take a 35 percent share in a U.S. company that makes multimedia technology for its mobile phones.

NEW YORK/DENVER (Billboard) - In the days following Michael Jackson's June 25 death, fans flocked to record stores and digital music outlets to purchase one last memory. And merchants say they expect the Jackson sales surge to last for weeks -- maybe even months.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - As much as he enjoys singing about the double lives of computer geeks ("Online") and amorous country boys ("Ticks"), Brad Paisley says there's too much going on in the world to be too lighthearted on his new album, "American Saturday Night."

A digital rights group is contesting a U.S. music industry association's assertion that royalties are due each time a mobile phone ringtone is played in public.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Computer security firm Sophos issued a warning about an Internet virus transmitted from a mass email claiming to contain secret songs and photos of Michael Jackson.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Video-sharing site YouTube announced on Wednesday that it was doubling the size limit for uploads to its website to allow users to post more high-definition (HD) video.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment, the second largest music company in world, said on Wednesday it made a strategic investment in IODA, a digital distributor of independent music.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lawyers for Michael Jackson filed the pop star's 2002 will in court on Wednesday that puts his multimillion-dollar estate in a family trust for his three children and his mother, but were denied a bid to take immediate control of his music fortune.

Struggling online video startup Joost, begun with much fanfare in 2007 by the same people behind Skype and Kazaa, is restructuring its business after discovering that it can't survive on advertising to fund its operations.

With all the outrage over The Pirate Bay going legit, I think it's time to reconsider the merits of illegally media sharing. The world has changed since Napster introduced peer-to-peer file sharing in 1999, and the culture that made the practice seem necessary has transformed.

Several years ago, when online video was beginning to really catch on, a startup named Joost was among the hottest new sites. On Tuesday, however, Joost announced it will "reorganize and restructure its business," wind down some operations, and focus on providing "white label online video platforms" to media companies.

Web video site Joost is restructuring, abandoning its hopes to be a successful ad-supported Web TV provider. Instead it will sell its video-serving technology to other media companies.

Sony introduced its Walkman portable cassette player thirty years ago this week, kicking off a revolution in the consumer electronics industry by changing the way people enjoy music.

TOKYO - When the Sony Walkman went on sale 30 years ago, it was shown off by a skateboarder to illustrate how the portable cassette-tape player delivered music on-the-go — a totally innovative idea back in 1979.