Palo Alto, Calif. - Online social network Facebook on Thursday introduced a number of new privacy protections intended to safeguard younger users from sexual predators and cyberbullies, the Associated Press reported.

New York - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO) has sued the Chicago Transit Authority and sales agent Titan Outdoor for pulling ads for its "Grand Theft Auto IV" game without any explanation, Reuters reports.

New York - New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Monday introduced new legislation, endorsed by leaders of the New York State Senate and Assembly, that would increase penalties on those caught trying to record films in movie theaters for piracy purposes.

New York - A federal judge in New York has created a formula for calculating the royalties that large webcasters AOL (NYSE: TWX), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) must pay songwriters and music publishers for streaming their songs between 2002 and 2009, which could provide just one performing rights organization, ASCAP, as much as $100 million in payments. U.S. District Judge William Conner's ruling stipulates that the webcasters must pay 2.5% of music-related revenue to ASCAP's 320,000 members; by that math, for 2006, AOL owes $5.95 million, and Yahoo owes $6.76 million.

Washington - The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved the PRO-IP Act, a bill that would provide more resources for the government to combat intellectual property crimes, increase penalties, and create a White House-level position to coordinate efforts. The bill, which was already amended to remove a portion that would have penalized each track on compilation CDs as a separate infringement, will now move to a vote in the full House; a Senate version of the bill was introduced last fall.

Los Angeles - A federal judge has rejected a pillar of the recording industry's argument in the copyright infringement lawsuits it has filed against file-swappers, ruling that simply "making available" songs in a shared folder on their computers does not equate to infringement. In Atlantic v. Howell, Judge Neil V. Wake has dismissed the label's motion for summary judgment against Pamela and Jeffrey Howell, saying in his ruling that "merely making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder's exclusive right of distribution."

New York - Divisions of three of the four major record labels on Monday filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Project Playlist, a site that lets users create playlists from streaming songs served from all over the Internet, Reuters reported. For its part, Project Playlist maintains that it does not host any music files, but instead merely links to files on many third-party sites, including many on record label websites.

London - Apple (NASD: AAPL) has threatened legal action against nearly a dozen U.K.-based online retailers who are buying Apple iPods in the U.S., where they cost about $30 less, and then reselling them in the U.K. at a discount on Apple's pricing, The Register reported.

Washington - A bipartisan group of powerful lawmakers this week introduced legislation that would mitigate the legal risk and potential damages associated with the use of "orphan works," or songs, books or other copyrighted media where the creator or owner cannot be identified. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are sponsoring the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 in the Senate, while House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced The Orphan Works Act of 2008 in the House.

Dublin - Ireland's largest Internet service provider, Eircom, has been sued by the major record labels under the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) on charges of aiding copyright infringement, RTE Business reported.

Washington - The Justice Department is investigating whether an advertising tie-up between Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) and Google (NASD: GOOG) violates antitrust laws, Reuters reported. Under a two-week test, scheduled to end this week, Yahoo is using Google's online ad system to provide relevant ads alongside its search results.

Prague - The Czech police, working with record label trade group the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), have shut down a computer server at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic that hosted what they said was one of the largest collections of pre-release music in the world.

New York - A federal judge has dismissed former Ramones drummer Richard "Richie Ramone" Reinhardt's lawsuit that sought nearly $1 million in what he claimed were unpaid digital royalties, the Associated Press reports. Reinhardt wrote six songs while in the band between 1983 and 1987, and had sought new remuneration for the songs in light of Internet distribution.

Washington - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) spent nearly $2.1 million in 2007 lobbying Congress for favorable copyright-related legislation, Ars Technica reported, citing the group's disclosure via the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

Washington - Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), a high-ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, on Friday wrote to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking the agency to block the $5 billion merger of satellite radio firms XM (NASD: XMSR) and Sirius (NASD: SIRI), Reuters reported.

Los Angeles - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) yesterday filed a federal copyright infringement suit against Pullmylink.com, saying the site "contributes to and profits from massive copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organizing and indexing links to infringing content found on the Internet." The site does not host content, but provides links in pop-up windows to third-party video sites where users have posted movies and TV shows.

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) announced on Thursday that it has received a second request for information from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) related to its proposed acquisition of fellow game publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO).