Box-office bonanza dampened by labor talks in Hollywood
Hollywood had one of its best summers in recent history, crossing the $4 billion mark in ticket sales for the first time. But executives say the business is closer to the edge of a cliff than ever.

Tech in Brief: Bertelsmann transfers U.S. media club units
Also, Sweden eyes proposal to fight file-sharing and PS3 narrows Wii's lead.

The music man
Columbia records is hoping that Rick Rubin, as the new co-head of Columbia Records, will save the company. And just maybe the record business.

As competition looms, Bloomberg TV cleaning up its on-air act
Within the television industry, Bloomberg TV is largely an afterthought in a lucrative genre dominated by CNBC. That could be changing as the marketplace for television business news heats up with the arrival in October of the Fox Business Network.

Microsoft to battle Google with software delivered through the Internet
In a strategy shift, Microsoft this week will this week make available free software that connects its Windows operating system to software delivered through the Internet.

Adblock Plus threatens the online revenue model
A free, easy-to-use program that deletes advertisements from Web sites is an unwelcome arrival after years of worry over whether such a model even existed.

Phone makers and Internet companies competing more on each other's turf
Nokia used to be just a cellphone maker. Google used to be just an Internet company. Now Nokia wants to be an Internet company and Google, according to rampant speculation among bloggers and technology analysts, may be about to enter the mobile phone fray.

Scrybe, an information manager to organize our many organizers
With a novel notepad that accepts text and images from the Web as well as the usual typed-in notes, Scrybe, a company based in Pakistan, offers a challenge to a market dominated by Microsoft, Google and Yahoo.

Persuading consumers to buy 'green' products
"Green" marketing is everywhere. Yet shoppers are still far more interested in factors like price, functionality and packaging than they are in the producer's environmental record, said Bart Becht, chief executive of the consumer product company Reckitt Benckiser. A new ad campaign aims to change that behavior.

Unlocking iPhone may open up legal issues
Unlocking the phone for one's own use, for instance, to place calls with a different carrier, appears to be legal. But if it is done for financial gain, the legality is less certain.

Sony shuttering Connect music store and ditching proprietary audio format
Sony said it would phase out operations of its struggling Connect online retailer, which sold songs in the company's proprietary ATRAC format.

YouTube signs licensing deal with British composers' group
YouTube said the deal with the MCPS-PRS Alliance, the British society that collects royalties for 50,000 composers, songwriters and publishers, would cover more than 10 million pieces of music.

Samsung says demand doesn't warrant making stand-alone HD DVD system
Samsung is using the Internationale Funkausstellung consumer electronics fair in Berlin to showcase the HT-BD2, a home entertainment system that plays HD videos using the rival Blu-ray format developed by Philips and Sony.

Bertelsmann transfers U.S. media club units

MUNICH: Bertelsmann, the largest European media company, will transfer its U.S. music, DVD and book clubs to its Random House publishing division to help sales, the company said Monday.

Stuart Goldfarb, who runs the U.S. direct-to-customer business, will report to Peter Olson, the Random House chief executive. Fernando Carro will lead the European and Asian operations of the direct business and report to Gunter Thielen, the Bertelsmann chief.

Bertelsmann's U.S. book, DVD and music club business, including the DVD seller Columbia House and the Bookspan book club, will transfer immediately to Random House from the Direct Group unit, the company said. The European and Asian book and DVD club businesses will remain at Direct Group.

Sweden eyes proposal to fight file-sharing

STOCKHOLM: Swedish Internet service providers could be required by law to cut off customers who share large amounts of copyright-protected music or films online under a new proposal presented to the government.

A report prepared by a government-appointed investigator said illegal file-sharing was "a significant obstacle" to the development of legal methods for downloading copyrighted material.

Sweden was long criticized as a safe haven for online piracy but has toughened its laws against file-sharing in recent years.

PS3 narrows Wii's lead

TOKYO: Nintendo's Wii video game console outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 by three to one in Japan in August, but Nintendo's overwhelming lead in the market narrowed for the second consecutive month.

Nintendo sold 245,653 Wii units in the four weeks that ended Aug. 26, compared with 81,541 PS3 consoles, game magazine publisher Enterbrain said. The ratio was more than four to one in favor of the Wii in July and six to one in June. Microsoft sold 11,288 units of its Xbox 360 in August, Enterbrain said.

SWISSCOM said that it would cut "roaming" rates for calls within Europe by 57 percent to 85 Swiss centimes, or 70 U.S. cents, a minute, starting Sept. 22, citing a reduction in the charges levied by other European networks.