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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.

 Hulu investor  Providence Equity Partners is pumping $50 million into a new online video company set up by Chinese Internet search giant  Baidu. The news comes roughly 7 weeks after Baidu confirmed plans to established a new independent company to provide licensed, advertising-supported online video content to Chinese Internet users.

"the main bottle necks for mobile broadcast TV are lacks of viable business models, low device variety, slow licensing processes. Despite these limiting factors, the number of mobile broadcast TV users considerably increased around the world in 2009"

"Taiwanese regulator the National Communications Commission (NCC) has revised its mobile TV licensing plans, announcing that, contrary to its previous announcement, only one concession will be awarded in 2010. As reported by CommsUpdate on 18 January 2010, the NCC revealed that it planned to award two operators concessions for mobile TV services, allocating each licensee 6MHz in the 600MHz frequency band across which it will deliver 18-20 programme channels using either the Qualcomm-developed MediaFLO or DVB-H as its mobile TV standard."

Video of Luge Crash raises interesting discussions about copyright and Fair Use. Google would not comment on the particular video but offered this general statement. "We approach each video individually, and we do not prescreen content. Instead, we count on our community members to know the Guidelines and to flag videos they think violate them. We review all flagged videos quickly, and if we find that a video does break the rules, we remove it, usually in under an hour." And, interestingly enough, regular TV broadcasters, with no licensing agreement with the IOC, are employing the fair use argument and airing the clip. Yet YouTube, and other online outlets are so terrified of the constant bullying from content creators that they're not going to take any chance and are taking the video down. In the end, nobody wins, people don't have access to the information, online video sites lose viewers and trust from their users and the IOC comes out as trying to hush up an unpleasant situation and (mis)using copyright law to do so.

Google faces problems related to privacy and copyright protection in Europe. Google's most immediate challenges may be in Italy. This month a decision is expected in a trial in Milan, where four Google executives have been charged with defamation and privacy violations in a case involving videos posted on a Google Web site showing the bullying of an autistic boy.Italian prosecutors accuse Google of negligence, saying it was too slow to remove the video. But Google sees a political dimension. One of the four executives, Peter Fleischer, Google's chief privacy counsel, called the case part of "an attack on a decade of progress" for Internet companies in Italy. In Germany, German publishers have persuaded the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to support a new kind of copyright protecting journalistic content on the Web. Analysts say the measure, which has not yet been introduced, could require Web companies like Google to buy special licenses to cite content published elsewhere.

In a sign that Google's negotiations with the Associated Press over a new licensing contract may have reached a standstill, new AP articles are no longer being hosted in Google (NSDQ: GOOG) News; Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan, who first reported the development, says that new AP articles haven't been hosted on the site since Dec. 24. Google isn't providing an explanation. 

"The context of this decision is interesting, in that the issue arose in the restructuring of Nassau Broadcasting, where its creditors were to take a controlling position in the company in exchange for a release of some of the company's debt. However, the new ownership position of its creditors, where their interests became attributable for the first time, required multiple ownership reviews in several markets, as these same investors were owners, or holders of significant debt (triggering an EDP issue) in other companies holding radio or TV licenses in nearby markets."

Interesting assertion that loss of Network prestige is part of the reason that TBS is part of the NCAA basketball deal.

David Honig, Executive Director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, criticizes the rates of minority licensee ownership and suggests potential remedies.