The French are now downloading at least as many movies illegally as they are watching in cinemas, according to research. Anti-piracy movie group Alpa’s study found those there downloaded over…

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As expected, Sony Corp (NYSE: SNE). and Bertelsmann AG have reached an agreement that has Sony buying Bertelsmann’s 50 percent stake in Sony BMG for $1.2 billion (£613.8 million). The…

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Arsenal football club majority owner Alisher Usmanov is reportedly trying to add to his online investments by buying between 10 and 20 percent of Russia’s top portal Yandex. Business paper…

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Dutch newspaper and magazine group Telegraaf Media Groep, which has the market-leading De Telegraaf title, has bought a 12 percent stake in German pay-TV group ProSiebenSat.1 (FRA: PSM) for €377…

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Growing French online publisher and ad network Hi-Media is buying in to more verticals with three online acquisitions and several other launches… -- Magicrpm: It’s entering the music segment by…

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WPP Group continues its steady pace of digital purchases in growing markets today by taking a majority stake in Russian interactive agency Alite Ltd. The company trades as Actis and…

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More copyright headaches for Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and YouTube… Italy’s MediaSet says it is suing the video site for at least 500 million euros, claiming the standard complaints about illegal…

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Italian law enforcers have shut the country’s largest BitTorrent tracker, responsible for sharing files to more than 400,000 registered users. It’s another action coordinated by the International Federation for the…

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Berlin-based language learning startup Babbel.com has attracted funds of an undisclosed amount to add staff and freelance content contributors. Members of the site teach other other through online partnerships. The…

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Four Google (NSDQ: GOOG) executives may be standing trial over failing to adequately monitor third-party content posted to their Italian language site. Italian prosecutors are preparing to file charges in…

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-- Endemol: German interactive TV channel 9Live‘s international MD is leaving to become MD of Endemol’s German unit. Marcus Wolter founded Seegang Music and Seegang Media, as well as Viva,…

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Spain’s Telecinco TV channel has claimed victory in its legal case against YouTube. The formal result is not yet out but, citing “judicial sources”, Telecinco says a Madrid court granted…

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The first most people heard of Sup was when the upstart Moscow internet investment vehicle bought LiveJournal from SixApart in December (oh, and poached Annelies van den Belt from ITV.com).…

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Russia’s third-placed search and portal operator Rambler is to launch a major TV and movie site - described to me as a “Russian Hulu” - as the basis of its…

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French ad holding company Publicis Groupe has bought South Korea’s Portfolio, which describes itself as a full-service digital agency. In keeping with last year’s formation of its network of international…

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Russian publisher GameLand is buying hockey portal AllHockey.ru from its founders for between $400,000 and $500,000, Russian business daily Kommersant reports (via Quintura). The site was founded by the pair…

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We have recently written about a flurry of Russian online deals, and this is among the bigger ones that have happened in the last year or so: Google has bought…

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Record high inflation is apparently taking its toll on the purchasing power of French citizens, so what better way for the government to tackle the problem than to target the…

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Glam Media is opening a German site with help from its backer Burda Cross Media. Glam is also getting some extra assistance from its latest acquisition, Munich-based digital marketing firm…

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LinkedIn clone Viadeo has acquired Spain’s ICTnet, a business-oriented community site listing 55 such communities. Viadeo’s Spain country manager Pedro Sanchez Pernia wrote the deal gives it 300,000 users in…

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-- The Film Club: Another bunch of film distributors is setting up an online distributor. Terry Stone, Mike Watson and Anthony Nottage are working on The Film Lounge, an adult…

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Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) is investing two million euros in Swoodoo, a German flights search and booking site, via its T-Online Ventures arm, and aims to integrate it with some…

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Expedia is following its acquisition of a majority of India’s TravelGuru site by buying Venere.com, an Italy-based travel site listing about 29,000 hotels in Europe and the US, for an…

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Here it is: After months of threats and warnings, the European Commission announced today that it will end “roaming rip-offs” for text messages abroad after calls to the industry to…

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Yet another year in which they’ve overlooked the I Like Turtles kid; here are the digital highlights (or perhaps lowlights) of the annual MediaGuardian 100 - a list of the…

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