Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace has announced the launch of a new "Data Availability" initiative, which will allow users to share their public profile data on third-party websites of their choosing, including Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), eBay, Photobucket and Twitter. The idea is to eliminate the need to update personal information across many websites, and instead use MySpace for updating, to include basic profile information, friend networks, photos, blog posts and videos.

New York - Take Two Interactive's (NASD: TTWO) 2K Games label announced on Friday that it has signed a deal with Universal Pictures to develop a movie based on its "BioShock" game, to be directed and produced by Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Caribbean"). Financial terms of the deal, or a timeline for the project, were not disclosed.

Last week we issued a news release titled Coldplay's Free Single Propels Website to #1 Online Among Bands and Artists. We found that U.S. visits to Coldplay.com increased 19 fold on the back of the band's new single, Violet Hill, being released for free online. On April 29, 2008, the day the single was released on Coldplay.com, the website ranked as the most visited website among the Bands and Artists category. A little more than 1 out of every 40 visits to Bands and Artists category went to Coldplay's website that day.

Washington - The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) annual undercover sting operation where underage consumers try to buy R-rated movie tickets, DVDs and M-rated video games has found a dramatic improvement at video game retailers, where its secret shoppers were able to buy M-rated games just 20% of the time -- down from 42% in 2007 and 85% in 2000. The video game industry and retail partners also fared better than movie theaters, where secret shoppers gained access to R-rated films 36% of the time, and DVD retailers, where R-rated title purchases were successful 47% of the time.

Mexico City - America Movil, a provider of wireless services in Latin America that claims 159.2 million subscribers in 16 countries, has announced a deal with Apple (NASD: AAPL) to launch the iPhone in the areas it serves later this year. The company, which offers mobile phone service in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and other countries, did not provide any other details on the partnership.

Washington - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved the PRO-IP Act, a bill pushed for by Hollywood studios that would beef up law enforcement dedicated to protecting intellectual property, as well as increase penalties for piracy. "We applaud the members of the House of Representatives for passing the PRO-IP Act, H.R. 4279," said Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) president Dan Glickman. "It is a comprehensive, bipartisan measure that will strengthen our nation's economy and generate more jobs for American workers by bolstering protections for intellectual property."

Los Angeles - TorrentSpy, a BitTorrent tracker site that lost a copyright infringement suit filed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) last year, has been ordered by a federal judge to pay a massive $110 million in damages. "This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites," said Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the MPAA. "The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios and demonstrates that such pirate sites will not be allowed to continue to operate without facing relentless litigation by copyright holders."

New York - Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO) announced on Wednesday that its "Grand Theft Auto IV" broke all-time day one and week one sales records, posting 3.6 million global unit sales on April 29, with a retail value of $310 million, and 6 million in sales for its first week, with an estimated retail value of more than $500 million. "Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date," said Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick.

Reston, Va. - Following months of negotiations, Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) said on Wednesday that it will combine its WiMax business with that of Clearwire. The resulting $14.5 billion company, which will retain the name Clearwire, will focus on deploying the first nationwide mobile WiMAX network, which promises wireless speeds comparable to those of broadband. The companies also said they have landed $3.2 billion in investments toward the project from Intel Capital, Google (NASD: GOOG), Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWX) and Bright House Networks.

New York - The winners of this year's Webby Awards were announced on Tuesday, with special achievement honors going to TV host Stephen Colbert, film director Michel Gondry and musical artist will.i.am. Colbert was named the Webby Person of the Year for the innovative ways he uses the Internet to interact with fans of his show, while Gondry was recognized in part for inspiring user-generated content with his new film, "Be Kind Rewind," and will.i.am for the songs and Internet videos he produced for Barack Obama.

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced on Tuesday that it has added more than 800 downloadable TV show episodes from NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Liberty Media (NASD: LINTA) and other providers to the online store for its Zune portable media player. Notable in the deal is NBC Universal's inclusion, as the company's programs disappeared from Apple's iTunes Store in December following disputes over pricing and bundling. "Partnering with Zune will allow us to develop innovative content offerings for their customers, including flexible pricing and packaging options beginning this fall," said JB Perrette, president of NBC Universal Digital Distribution.

Just over a week ago during lunch at the New Communication Forum, I had a great conversation with Tim Tozer from Radian6 (a social media monitoring service) about the real metrics that marketers are looking for and the increasingly common difficulty of finding metrics that are actually useful and offer actionable insights. Many people who have to contend with web analytics tools today will tell you that it is no longer an issue of having the technology available to measure things online, but rather the analytical ability to hone in on the metrics that really matter.