According to Sony president of product planning Naoya Matsui, the company has been planning a UMD-less PSP since the launch of the original handheld system, but was simply waiting for the market for digital downloads to mature.

"We'd planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning," says Matsui, via Develop. "But if we'd simply released the hardware, there wouldn't have been much for everyone to enjoy. We needed to prepare the right environment for it first - things like the transferral of content with the PS3 and PSN, and PC software to manage content like music and movies such as 'Media Go'.

"We wanted to release it when the delivery of digital content was on par with the delivery of physical media. Thats what we've been working on these past two years. We'll be selling the PSP Go alongside the existing PSP models, because it's a product targeted at those people who are more accustomed to digital content."

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The copyright administration company MCS Music America has filed suit against Real Networks, Yahoo and Microsoft this week, alleging that the groups engaged in copyright infringement on some of the company's music.

The case is based on the streaming technology used by yahoomusic.com, rhapsody.com and zune.com which allows customers to listen to full music streams "on demand," or to download unlimited amounts for a monthly fee.

The suit alleges, according to TGDaily, that the music downloaded during complimentary free trials, "stay on peoples' hard drives as long as the free trial period runs, or the monthly subscription fee is paid. To do so, the suit continues, the defendants have to obtain not only the rights for the sound recording itself, but the rights for the underlying musical competition."

MCS says it is currently the "exclusive copyright licensing administrator" for the artists and songs listed in the filing.

As part of the suit, the company is asking for $150,000 USD for each act of infringement as well as an injunction on use of the tracks in an infringing manner.

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A long standing court case in which Microsoft has been sued for patent infringement over its Xbox Live service, is coming to a conclusion soon, with a settlement looming, says new reports.

The patents, filed in 1994 by Peter Hochstein and Jeffrey Tenenbaum, are specifically for "communicating live while playing the same videogame in separate locations".

Sony recently settled a similar lawsuit with the two men, over the PlayStation Network. The amount of the settlement was undisclosed.

You can read about the patents and the dispute here: Case Update: Hochstein v. Microsoft

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According to video game analyst Todd Mitchell, Take-Two and Rockstar will be releasing two new DLC episodes for the blockbuster game Grand Theft Auto IV in 2010, and will then release GTA V in 2011.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Mitchell added that the DLC may not necessarily be Xbox 360-exclusive like the previous episodes and could be available for the PS3 as well.

"I would expect that there would be two more pieces of downloadable content for GTA IV, that's what has been indicated to me, although formats are unsure. It's been indicated to me to me that would be the case," said Mitchell.

As for GTA V, Mitchell expects a 2011 release date, alongside a new GTA title for the aging PS2.

"Coming out of E3 there was no commitment to a new Grand Theft Auto, and I think that's because of Rockstar's track record with delivering on time," added Mitchell.

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Jammie Thomas-Rasset will be appealing the $1.92 million judgement against her in the first RIAA file sharing case ever decided by a jury.

At issue will be the constitutionality of awarding $80,000 per song. US copyright sets minimum damages at $750 per song, but allows up to $150,000 for "willful infringement."

Attorney Joe Sibley told CNET News "She wants to take the issue up on appeal on the constitutionality of the damages. That's one of the main arguments--that the damages are disproportionate to any actual harm."

Although the courts have previously ruled that punitive damages in excess of ten times the actual damage caused are a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution, there's no precedent on whether statutory damages are similarly limited.

The Department of Justice has already shown they are willing to defend the damages. Earlier this year a lawyer from the DOJ Federal Programs Branch, which is headed by former RIAA lawyer Ian Gershengorn did exactly that in another case.

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The British Video Association has said today that despite a few recent good sellers such as Quantum of Solace, DVD revenue had fallen 14 percent with total sales volume falling 7.7 percent.

If the trend continues, the BVA says the UK will have its worst year for home video revenue since the 1980s.

Lavinia Carey, spokesperson for the BVA, adds that the high revenue drop can mainly be attributed to the recent bankruptcies of retailers Woolworths and Zavvi. “We’ve just seen 15 per cent of the retail market disappear,” says Carey, via Times Online.

Blu-ray was a bright spot in an otherwise dreary report, seeing a 231 percent increase in units sold. The BVA does add however that Blu-ray still only accounts for 3.1 million units sold, compared to 99.6 million for DVD (during the period).

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According to the Taiwanese website UDN, and translated originally by Engadget, it appears the upcoming rumored PS3 Slim will be ready to ship by the end of July.

The report says the companies Foxconn and Pegatron are already working on the new model and will have the system built and ready to ship by the end of the month.

Last week, Arstechnica revealed they had information on an upcoming PS3 price cut set for August which would come alongside the launch of the PS3 Slim.

The PS3 Slim, if true, would only be marginally different than the current PS3, however sporting a much thinner body.

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The HTML 5 standard won't include requirements for browsers to support particular audio or video standards according to Ian Hickson, editor of that standard on behalf of the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C).

Hickson's comments were posted on the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group mailing list. He attributes the decision to a lack of consensus among browser makers.

Previously there had been talk of making either MPEG-4 AVC or OGG Theora the officially supported video codec for use with the

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The RIAA has won a case against Usenet.com, the popular company used for file sharing via newsgroups.

The federal ruling, by Judge Harold Baer Jr. of New York, found Usenet.com liable for copyright infringement, and passed the ruling unto a magistrate that will either impose a fine or start a cease and desist on all infringing activity.

The suit was filed by the trade group in 2007.

Says the RIAA: "This decision is another example of courts recognizing the value of copyrighted music and taking action against companies and individuals who are engaging in wide scale infringement. We hope that other bad actors who are engaging in similar activity will take note of this decisive opinion."

"We're disappointed in the outcome," notes Charles Baker, the lawyer representing Usenet.com. He did add however that the precedents set in the case will not "adversely affect future Usenet defendants."

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Earlier today we reported that the infamous public torrent tracker The Pirate Bay had been sold to the software company Global Gaming Factory X, who then decided to shut down the tracker and remove its torrents.

Responding very quickly to user requests for it, the admins of the Pirate Bay have now added a "user deletion" option for those users who do not want any part of the new "legal" Pirate Bay.

Says the blog:

"We are going to build a user deletion interface later today. Many people have asked about having their account removed and we will not force anyone to stay on of course.

However, we also want to point out that we have no logs of anything, no personal data will be transferred in the eventual sale (since no personal data is kept). So no need to be worried for safety. We always care for that.
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