Internet & Media

Updates are noted at the bottom of this story.

SAN FRANCISCO--Attorneys for the Motion Picture Association of America attacked fair use during a hearing in the RealDVD case here on Thursday, claiming it is not a defense for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. To prove its point, the MPAA relied on RealNetworks' own testimony in a prior case.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel is due to decide whether Real can once again start selling RealDVD, the software enables users to duplicate DVDs and store copies on their computers. The MPAA filed suit last September and accused Real of … Read more

Hulu will live-stream a concert for the first time: Dave Matthews Band at New York's Beacon Theater on June 1.

The online video hub, which announced the event Thursday, will be the only place streaming the concert live, at least legally.

Pop culture brush-up: the Dave Matthews Band was really, really, really huge in the '90s, known for lengthy live jams, for a Phish-like cult following that skewed more preppy than hippie, and for "Ants Marching," which was inescapable if you ever got anywhere near a frat house between 1994 and 1997. People generally loved them or … Read more

Among all the companies fighting to grab a piece of the brightest star in computing--the smartphone--Google seems the least interested in taking the spoils.

Android, Google's mobile operating system, doesn't generate revenue for the company, and likely never will--at least in the direct sense. But Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms, thinks Google and the world will benefit from any device created with the intent of getting more people onto the Internet, and isn't shy about explaining why the open-source approach chosen for Android holds the most promise of reaching that goal.

Android made its debut in 2007, … Read more

Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed speculation that his company had been considering the possibility of acquiring a newspaper, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

However, in the same interview, Schmidt quickly added that the company has since decided against the idea because potential acquisition targets are either too expensive or have too many liabilities. Schmidt said Google was "trying to avoid crossing the line" between technology and content and was instead working with struggling publishers to make their Web sites "work better" for online advertising, according to the story.

Schmidt also dismissed what he called "clever … Read more

Update 6:20 a.m. Thursday: To include more background on new witness.

RealNetworks introduced a new witness in the RealDVD case on Wednesday, a move that comes late in the court proceedings that could decide the software's fate.

Real is locked in a court battle with the major movie studios over RealDVD, a software that enables owners to copy DVDs and store them to a hard drive. The Motion Picture Association of America filed suit against Real last fall, accusing the company of violating copyright law and breach of contract. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel could rule … Read more

Sony has spoken with some of the major recording companies about providing music for the PlayStation Portable, music industry sources told CNET News.

The sources said the talks are only preliminary and no deals have been struck. But apparently, Sony is considering offering music on the PlayStation Network, the company's nascent multiplayer gaming and digital download service. Such a move could place the PSP in direct competition with other multiuse music players, most notably the iPhone.

Spokespeople from Sony and the big recording labels declined to comment for this story.

The PSP is a nifty little handheld that plays … Read more

Twitter can be described as a hive mind. It's a real-time collective consciousness of its users. Some of those users are Oprah and Shaq. And many, many others are members of Anonymous, the loose-knit group of Internet do-gooders, pranksters, demons, and troublemakers who have famously taken on Scientology, hacked Sarah Palin's e-mail account, and saved a troubled cat named Dusty from his abusive owners.

Last month, Anonymous, via the dark recesses of its general Web HQ 4chan, invaded Time magazine's "World's Most Influential Person" to nominate--and then elect--4chan's founder "moot&… Read more

Google is giving brands and content publishers another way to track YouTube viewership metrics by letting them view it inside of Google Analytics.

Brands can now keep an eye on information that had not previously been available through YouTube's built-in Insight analytics system, including bounce rates, page views, stay time, and whether certain users are coming back for more.

It also takes the same geographic information that's been available in Insight, and lets you fine-tune it within the Google Analytics maps overlay, which includes additional filtering tools that can narrow down results by segment. Brand owners are also … Read more

The University of Michigan has signed up as the first library to participate in Google's book-scanning project under the terms of Google's proposed settlement with library groups.

Google and UM have been working together since 2004 on digitizing the university's library collection, but the Google Book Search settlement would allow Michigan to offer its books online as part of a subscription, or in some cases for free. The settlement has drawn reported attention from the government as well as library groups worried over the costs associated with access to such a large digital library amassed by a … Read more