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GIANCARLO Mancusi, a public prosecutor in Bergamo, is investigating The Pirate Bay's founders for alleged violations of Italy's copyright law, the first justice authority to take action against the Swedish website outside its home territory. Mancusi obtained a court order in August 2008 blocking access from Italian ISPs to all Pirate Bay addresses, but the ban was lifted on appeal two months later.

ACCORDING to a recent KPMG report on the Indian entertainment industry, the DVD market was estimated to be worth Rs 8.6 billion (€128.3m) in 2008 and may reach Rs 16 billion (€238.6m) by 2013.

TIME WARNER, for the first time, separated home video and electronic sell-through revenue from theatrical and TV fare in reporting first-quarter results (ended March 31). Movie revenue in packaged media and electronic distribution totaled $477 million, down 42% from $810 million last year. Packaged media and electronic revenue from TV content totaled $157 million, up nearly 10% from $160 million last year. Overall, the Time Warner group reported revenue of $6.9 billion, down 7% from $7.4 billion during the prior-year period.

THE US has added Canada to its "priority watch list" of countries where Internet piracy flourishes, reflecting a tough new line in the Obama administration over the Harper government's failure to deliver on promises of new copyright laws. Canada joins a dozen countries – including Algeria, China, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Venezuela – criticised by the US Trade Representative's Office for being especially lax in protecting intellection property

DEMAND for Internet-enabled televisions is growing rapidly, according to a new study by CEA. The study, Net-Enabled Video: Early Adopters Only?, found that about half of prospective TV buyers say they are likely to purchase an Internet-connected TV. The study also found that most adults are already online while watching TV. Almost a third of online adults (30%) say they always or usually surf the Internet while watching television and another third (32%) say they sometimes do.

MORE than 40% of US adults under 35 are already viewing Internet video on the TV at least once per month, according to research firm In-Stat, which predicts that revenue from Web-to-TV streaming services will grow to $2.9 billion in 2013. Within five years, the number of U.S. broadband households viewing Web-to-TV content will grow to 24 million and 7.4 million households will use PCs to stream Web-to-TV content, In-Stat estimated.