Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group have all sued the site again over illegal music downloads, deeming it a winnable cause after last month’s ruling against Yahoo China. The companies are being represented by the IFPI which noted that the record companies had also sued Sohu.com, China’s third largest Internet portal.

The IFPI has stated that China’s market of legally distributed music files is a minuscule $76 million USD, less than 1 percent of the global market.

“It’s a matter of great regret that, despite the clear precedent laid down by the Yahoo China judgment, those Internet companies are instead choosing blatant violation of copyright” and the litigation that accompanies it, said John Kennedy, CEO of the IFPI.

The new iPhone will feature 16GB of memory and will retail for $499 USD. The current 8GB version costs $399 USD and has been available since Q4 2007.

The new iPod Touch will have 32GB of memory and will retail for $499 USD. The current 8GB and 16GB models cost $299 and $399 USD respectively.

Apple said the new devices will be available in Apple’s retail stores and online through various e-tailers. The new capacity iPhone will also be available through AT&T’s online and retail stores. The new models will come with the latest firmware pre-installed meaning users will be able to rent movies from the iTunes movie rental service.

Currently the service has offerings from National Geographic and ITN but will now add shows such as “Pimp My Ride” and music videos.

The deal with Sony BMG will put exclusive videos, backstage footage, interviews, and tour info on MSN Video.

“The music industry is facing tough challenges and it is all now about becoming a music entertainment company rather than just a record company”, said Ulrich Jarkel, senior vice president, Digital and Business Development Sony BMG.

“The whole game has changed. We now have over 150 ways to access Justin Timberlake content for example.”

MTV has made similar deals in the recent past, giving users access to South Park, Pimp My Ride, Punk’d, Cribs and Soapbox.

“This is one of our most important partnerships”, said Gideon Bierer, senior vice president, Digital Media, MT, “we will be adding other MTV network brands in the future from channels such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central”.

The service is available in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden and the US. It will launch in Belgium, Denmark and Norway later this year.

This quarter marks the first time Sony has been on top of LCD sales and DisplaySearch said the lead was built upon “top showings” in the 40-44″, 45-49″ and 50-54″ categories.

Vizio, which has been on top for a few quarters now, fell to third place yet still posted 250 percent growth year over year and kept its share lead in the 37″ HDTV market, selling almost twice as many TVs as the next closest competitor.

The market itself remained very close, with Sony leading at 12.8 percent of the market. Samsung was second at 12.3 percent, Vizio followed at 10.7 percent and Sharp rounded out the top four at 8.4 percent.

Sharp fell furthest for the quarter seeing almost flat quarter growth. Sony grew over 80 percent and Samsung grew over 50.

Although the list of DivX-certified devices continues to grow, the list of mobile phones is very short. There are only two phones that even support DivX playback, the Samsung SGH-F500 and SGH-F508.

The Viewty camera phone captures video at an abnormally large 120 FPS and a relatively large 640 x 480 Resolution. Besides adding better quality Compression the Viewty will no longer need to use conversion software that 3GP video needs.

The movies not available are from Sony Columbia Pictures, and despite rumors, it is not because Sony happens to have a rival gaming console. It turns out that Netlix did not get a licensing deal completed in time, and the Netflix team admits to the snafu.

Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, added that movie titles “come in and out of licensing all the time.” He said he hopes the missing movies will only be temporary.

“Today, titles regularly come in and out of license and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time,” he explained. “In the case of Xbox 360, a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox game console. Those titles are still available to be watched on subscribers’ computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they’ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly.”

The new price cut brings the price of the add-on in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to $129.99 USD. A few months ago Microsoft dropped the price of its add-on and promptly saw a surge in sales.

Earlier today, the huge e-tailer Amazon began selling the add-on for $79.99 USD and sold out within hours.

It is also important to note that every purchase of the add-on includes a free copy of “King Kong” on HD DVD in the box as well as an offer to get five free discs in the mail.

The company also stated that they will demo the standard and show examples of HD video moving in both directions including something they call “HD blogging”. Motorola will use LTE to stream live HD video to a set top box so that viewers can follow mobile phone footage in real-time. From the opposite direction, the standard will be shown Streaming an HDTV feed from home straight to the handset, cutting out the need for re-encoding.

Motorola also added that the very low lag times of LTE will make real-time actions finally possible. To demo their statement, the company will show off a racing game played online against other players. They will also show VoIP calls made using LTE.

The company did not say how long until the technologies would be commercially available but LTE should launch in some areas by early 2009.

Last month, the Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) began offering a $40 USD rebate off the purchase price of $59.99 USD for the box. It is important to note that the box will only be required for TV owners that do not have cable or satellite service. To qualify for the rebate, any consumer must simply apply for it via NTIA’s web site.

In October, the retailer pulled analog TVs and analog tuner products from its shelves, being the first company to do so. The retailer also said it will be launching a dedicated toll-free number for Best Buy customers to call if they have any inquiries about the transition.

“The DTV transition is an event that is unprecedented in this country, and it will require a coordinated effort by broadcasters, manufacturers, retailers and the government,” electronics chief Mike Vitell said “We take our role as a trusted source of information very seriously.”

The new site, named after the boss of the Danish IFPI, gives Danish users detailed instructions on how to get around the block and gain access again to The Pirate Bay.

One of the admins of TPB, Brokep, had this to say about the new domain name. “We’ll associate his name with something positive instead of his negative IFPI vibe.”

The admin team over at TPB has also asked other torrent site admins to help by redirecting all customers from the blocked ISP Tele2 to the Jesper Bay. The team even wrote a piece of code that can redirect all Tele2 users to the Jesper Bay so they can change their DNS.

The ruling which has caused the block was released last night and ruled that Tele2 “assists in copyright infringement” simply because they give their customers access to TPB. The ruling should result in more ISP blocks, and the IFPI has already announced that they will start similar cases in Norway and Finland.

Sebastian Gjerding, a spokesperson for the Danish pro-piracy lobby Piratgruppen, made an interesting quote after the ruling was read. “It’s very frightening that the IFPI can get through the courts with something like this. In Turkey and China its the state that decides what information the people can access and what should be censored. In Denmark its apparently the record industry.”