Project Playlist, the website that lets people create and share music playlists and was led by current MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, has blocked the playback of tunes to users in many countries. The switch-off happened last week, when Palo Alto-based Playlist.com’s web player began displaying the message: “Due to…

I’m sitting outside on a lovely Friday morning, sipping a cup of tea and catching up on the news. What’s wrong with this picture? It’s the final Friday of Wimbledon and I’m reduced to either watching a pirated feed from a place where the broadcasters value live sports or following…

So how exactly does unlikely Pirate Bay bidder Global Gaming Factory X intend to profit from the scourge of the entertainment industry, and pay content owners? CEO Hans Pandeya, who offered SEK 60 million (£7.4 million) this week, tells paidContent:UK he wants to sell users’ unused hard disk space to…

Corrected: I really must stop believing some news sources. Contrary to what Revolution magazine reported from its own conference, Blue State isn’t retained by London 2012 either “in any capacity”, the Games’ new media head Alex Balfour tells us in our comments... Earlier: Thomas Gensemer, the founder of the Blue…

There’s not a ton of information so far, but BlackBerry has launched a web site that is teasing U2 fans, who own a BlackBerry, that a mobile U2 Album is “almost here,” notes Crackberry.com. In a short video, there’s some vague language set to an inspiring U2 track that says…

Italy’s diverse social network, mobile and community operator Dada has resumed its journey on the M&A trail, buying 51 percent of Milan Stock Exchange-listed casual web games publisher Fueps for €1.36 million.

Game Group’s UK and Ireland sales fell back by 12.4 percent in the first half of this year, the company says in a trading statement - but the drop was expected after “exceptional” sales of Wii Fit, Mario Kart and Grand Theft Auto IV bumped sales up 25 percent last…

Cash-rich Manchester City FC has hired Endemol’s new Sport division to produce, distribute and sell all its global online video content, as the club looks to join its more illustrious neighbour Manchester United in pushing its brand to fans worldwide, as Guardian.co.uk reports. Endemol Sport, which launched as a new…

Whilst winning delirious praise from users wowed by its free music free ride, we’d forgive much-flattered Spotify for wanting to hunker down from here on in, focusing on building out a sustainable business… So we were surprised to see CEO Daniel Ek quoted by The Register as saying: “We might…

Sweden’s Global Gaming Factory wants to buy The Pirate Bay for SEK60 million (£4.7 million) and start building a business model that compensates rightsholders. But, in an article excerpted from his blog, Forrester VP and research director Mark Mulligan (pictured) asks, why buy a site that is diametrically opposed to…

Unlimited-download models may be gaining in popularity - but slowly enough that turning the music biz on its head is still a past-time of renegades… At MusExpo Europe ‘09 in London on Tuesday, Billy Bragg manager and International Music Managers’ Forum president Peter Jenner repeated his earlier calls for a…

Swedish publicly listed software company Global Gaming Factory X (GFF) says it wants to buy The Pirate Bay SEK60 million (£4.7 million) and will begin compensating copyright ownersfor material its users find and download. GGF announced today said it will also buy P2P technology company Peerialism and plans “to launch…

Strawberries and cream, under-performing Brits and… online video? The last one isn’t immediately associated with the quaintly old-fashioned Wimbledon Championships, now in to their second week, but fans can now watch every minute of Andy Murray’s route to the final (hopefully) online. And in this grand slam contest there are…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is following up its recent BSkyB Xbox deal by adding live and VOD shows from France’s Canal+ Group to the games console. Like the Sky deal, it seems Xbox users will need to already be Canal+ subscribers. The deal covers several suites of programming from the Vivendi-owned…

—Five Cricket VOD: Five’s highlights from this summer’s Ashes Test series will be shown online via its Demand Five VOD platform—and the Publicis-owned Zenith Optimedia agency has bought up all the ad inventory surrounding it and a new cricket mini-site. Each 45-minute highlights show will go online from 10pm each…

Just a few months after rival *Activision* brought in *Yahoo* vet Dan Rosensweig to head up its Guitar Hero division, comes news that MTV Games has added two new senior execs to its roster to prep for the launch of The Beatles: Rock Band. THQ’s former EVP of publishing Scott…

Forget the international date line. I crossed the international tennis line when I flew to the UK this weekend, leaving behind a place where I could follow most of Wimbledon live online at no charge on NBC, which even will stream the finals live, and ESPN (NYSE: DIS)  for one…

We told you last week Michael Jackson would find chart fame again - and he has. Jackson sold 300,000 albums and singles between the announcement of his death Thursday night and close-of-play Saturday, The Official UK Charts Company tells us. Jackson commanded more than one in every five Top 200…

—Rapidshare appeal: The German file-sharing site is appealing its €24 million fine from a Hamburg court, in a case brought by German collecting society GEMA. Rapidshare CEO Bobby Chang says GEMA is trying to “turn back time” by suing the site. From P2P-blog.com. —IAB games council: The UK’s Internet Advertising…