A Federal Communications Commission rule change has granted two big wishes to the Hollywood film studios on Friday. Rejecting pleas from cinema operators, the FCC’s Media Bureau issued a waiver allowing movie studios to deliver first run theatrical releases via video-on-demand systems, The Wrap reported. On top of that, the…

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has filed another lawsuit against Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), this time alleging that the iPhone and the iPad 3G infringe on five of its most important patents. The suit, filed in Federal District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin, is just the latest legal battle between the…

Caught between a previous regime’s decision on how to define broadband and a recent federal court decision that the Federal Communications Commission didn’t have the authority to regulate so-called net neutrality, Julius Genachowski is trying for a “third way.” The plan, outlined today in an 8-page document embedded below, tries…

Post-MSG Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) turned in another strong quarter, defining why analyst Craig Moffet calls it a “cash machine. Profit for Q1 more than tripled to $74.1 million, with a 5 percent increase in revenue to led by increases in nearly every major cable category. Advertising results were mixed across…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q109	Net Inc. vs Q109
CVC	Release	N/A	5.2%	250%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

There’s publicity money can’t buy, and then there’s influence that certainly does have a price… In two last-minute attempts to influence the UK general election on Thursday…

By John Eggerton: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will unveil on May 6 the commission’s legal approach to clarifying its authority to regulate the Internet. A senior FCC official describes it as somewhere between a “weak Title I and overly burdensome Title II” approach. “The Chairman will seek to restore the…

Regulators from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice are looking into the possibility of starting an antitrust inquiry against Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) over the company’s recent stipulation that bans app developers from using programming tools for outside mobile systems, the NYP reports, citing an unidentified source.…

Match.com has sent letters to several rival dating sites demanding that they stop circulating what the company considers to be false statistics about their services. We reported yesterday that Match.com had asked PlentyOfFish to stop making some claims about its site—but Match.com CEO Greg Blatt tells us the company sent…

While one company sues, another partners. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) said today that its long-standing handset partner, HTC, which makes both Windows and Android phones, has agreed to a broad patent agreement in conjunction with the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android platform. Details of the agreement were not disclosed, but HTC will…

The iPhone prototype story that has filled the headlines for the past week or so—and hijacked our “State of Gadget Media” event last week—just won’t quit. Now, Gizmodo reports that as of Friday night, California police entered the home of Gizmodo Editor Jason Chen and seized four computers and two…

An official police investigation has been opened to determine whether Gizmodo’s purchase of what could be an iPhone prototype violated any criminal laws. CNet reports that according to officials, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has spoken to local police about the incident and the investigation is believed to be headed by a…

As street artist Shepard Fairey was finishing up his latest work last night on Houston St. in New York City, I stopped to talk with him about his ongoing legal battle with the AP. His dispute with the wire service concerns the rights to a photo he used to create…

It took a couple of extra months but Fox and Universal have agreed to roughly the same deal with DVD rental kiosk company Redbox as Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) did in February. Both studios will now provide Redbox with “improved economic terms,” as well as additional access to Blu-ray titles,…

It’s almost required. Facebook makes big changes; privacy freak-outs follow. Here’s what’s setting off the latest batch in the aftermath of this morning’s announcements: CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company was tossing a policy that required third-party Facebook developers to delete Facebook user data after a day. “So now if…

Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is making a very bold argument in its latest standoff with state tax collectors: The company charges that North Carolina—which is conducting an audit into whether Amazon is complying with its tax laws—wants it to turn over the name and address of every North Carolina resident who…

The news producers are getting antsier against the aggregators day-by-day, and who else but Rupert Murdoch to lead the charge. Dow Jones, part of News Corp (NYSE: NWS). has filed a lawsuit against Briefing.com, the “live” market analysis service that is sold as a subscription and also available for free…

Critics of the NBC Universal-Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) merger who wanted the Federal Communications Commission to extend the response deadline past May 3 will get more time. The FCC said late Friday afternoon that it is suspending the comment and petition schedule to give Comcast and NBCU parent General Electric (NYSE:…

Scant hours before Google (NSDQ: GOOG) releases earnings, Viacom (NYSE: VIA) has released another batch of just-unsealed documents in its $1 billion lawsuit against the company. The last batch revealed considerable discussion at YouTube about how to deal with video uploaded sans permission and an awareness of how such content…

Usually I watch Congressional hearings on webcasts, an amazing gift for those of us who reported before live streaming. Today through a fluke of my schedule and the postponement of the original hearing from March til today, I’m in the Russell Building for a key moment in the FCC’s National…