AP Sources: YouTube may offer online movie rentals

LOS ANGELES — YouTube, Google Inc.'s online video streaming service, is in talks with Hollywood studios to rent new release movies online, according to people familiar with the talks.

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AP Sources: YouTube to offer online movie rentals

LOS ANGELES — YouTube, Google Inc.'s online video streaming service, is in talks with Hollywood studios to rent new release movies online, according to people familiar with the talks.

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China trade ruling helps US, but piracy a problem

LOS ANGELES — American companies counting on a favorable trade ruling against China to boost sales of CDs, DVDs, books and video games will need a crackdown on rampant piracy before they can reap big benefits.

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China might appeal WTO ruling on film import

BEIJING — China said Thursday it might appeal a major World Trade Organization ruling that told Beijing to ease restrictions on imported movies, music and books in its latest trade dispute with Washington.

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Judge bars sales of RealNetworks' DVD software

SAN FRANCISCO — DVD copying software sold by RealNetworks Inc. appears to be an illegal pirating tool, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a legal battle that's been closely watched in Hollywood and elsewhere.

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Big tech earnings week will reveal economic trends

SEATTLE — The technology sector is often talked about as if it were a unified front, an easy-to-define monolith. People say technology stocks rose or technology stocks fell. Tech helped drive a huge boom in the 1990s, and when that collapsed in 2001, tech contributed to the last recession.

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News of Jackson's death first spread online

NEW YORK — It was a where-were-you moment in a digital age. Michael Jackson's death was not learned from a fatherly TV news anchor. Instead, the news first spread online.

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Sony becomes 2nd label on Vevo music video site

LOS ANGELES — Recording company Sony Music Entertainment has joined Vevo, an online music video site due to launch this year with the backing of Universal Music Group and YouTube. The music unit of Sony Corp. will take an equity stake in the venture. The other two major recording companies, Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI Group PLC, are also in talks on joining.

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Time Warner 1Q profit falls on cable spin

LOS ANGELES — Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday that its first-quarter profit fell 14 percent on charges related to its cable unit spin-off. Amid an ad slump, the media conglomerate reaffirmed its guidance on flat profits for the full year. The company also moved further toward shedding the beleaguered Internet unit AOL, while suggesting that its Time Inc. magazine business may go some day.

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Hollywood in showdown over DVD 'ripper'

SAN FRANCISCO — Hollywood calls it "rent, rip and return" and contends it's one of the biggest technological threats to the movie industry's annual $20 billion DVD market — software that allows you to copy a film without paying for it. On Friday, industry lawyers urged a federal judge to bar RealNetworks Inc. from selling software that allows consumers to copy their DVDs to computer hard drives, arguing that the Seattle-based company's product is an illegal pirating tool.

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