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The San Francisco Bay Guardian is entitled to half the advertising revenue of the rival SF Weekly to help collect $21 million in damages after a jury verdict of illegal price-cutting, a Superior Court commissioner ruled Tuesday.

RealNetworks has agreed to kill its DVD-copying software and pay $4.5 million in settling a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by Hollywood studios. As part of the settlement announced Wednesday, the provider of online entertainment services also agreed to drop its appeal of a San Francisco federal court ruling that barred RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of the studios' copyrighted content. The 2008 lawsuit filed by Viacom and the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that RealDVD illegally circumvented the anti-piracy technology embedded in DVDs. The DVD Copy Control Association, which licenses Hollywood-sanctioned copyright-protection technology, joined the suit later, claiming RealNetworks was also in violation of its DVD CCA license.

"The holding company of MediaNews Group Inc., the publisher of dozens of newspapers including the Denver Post and the San Jose Mercury News, plans to file for bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter."

Apple Inc. is expected to hold an event on Jan. 27 to introduce its eagerly anticipated tablet computer. Apple sent invitations by e-mail message to reporters on Monday that said, "Come see our latest creation" at a theater in San Francisco.