After much diplomatic maneuvering and a series of face-saving gestures on both sides, Google finally signed an agreement with French newspaper publishers late Friday that puts to rest a long-standing legal battle over Google's behavior in excerpting stories on Google News, which the French have argued is copyright infringement. But while the search giant may be relieved to put the whole kerfuffle behind it, there's an argument to be made that it has actually done more harm than good - not only to its own interests, but to the interests of the open web as well.

Telegraph Media Group has today announced the acquisition of a majority equity interest in VOS Media, with MD Damian Norman retaining a minority equity stake. VOS Media Ltd produces market leading events in their sectors including the Ski & Snowboard Show, The Outdoors Show, The London Bike Show, The Active Travel Show, and the Vitality Show.

Kids are equally disturbed by violent videos on YouTube that depict cruelty to animals or beheadings, and through insensitive Facebook messages from divorced parents, according to a new study. Expected to be unveiled today by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, the research advises that David Cameron's policy to obstruct sexual content and pornography through parental controls and filters via internet service providers will be a part of steps to ensure the safety of kids online.

A knock on the door turned out to be a salesman trying to get someone to re-sign to Lovefilm, the subscription video service. A door-to-door salesman. While lots of internet services market heavily - television ads, radio spots, billboards, leaflets and print - this approach seems to be a first. Trying to prevent customer churn is one thing, but this just has the ring of desperation about it ... and comes as another piece of anecdotal evidence that suggests Lovefilm's feeling incredible pressure from Netflix.

The announcement is part of the group's first quarter of its latest financial year between October and the end of December 2012, which shows group revenue to be down by 3%, and by 1% in the UK. The publisher, which has been focused on increasing its digital output in recent years, saw a continued growth in its digital earnings, reported as 23% of its normalised revenue, although its managed declines in print by its U.S. division was cited as the main factor in overall revenue decline.

The investigative journalism site Help Me Investigate (HMI) has teamed up with the Birmingham Mail to launch regional datablog, "Behind The Numbers". According to the project's home page, the initiative is mainly concerned with information regarding hospitals, schools, crime, policing, business, sports, arts and culture with data being sourced by both the newspaper and HMI.

Right now, cord-cutting Downton Abbey fans have several options for streaming previous of the show: Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon, as well as PBS's own website for current-season episodes. Later this year, though, options will be much more limited: Amazon said Friday that by the end of 2013, Prime Instant Video will be the exclusive paid streaming service to allow access to the show.

Google has agreed to create a 60m euro ($82m; GBP52m) fund to help French media organisations improve their internet operations. It follows two months of negotiations after local news sites had demanded payment for the privilege of letting the search giant display their links. The French government had threatened to tax the revenue Google made from posting ads alongside the results.

In a blog post, staff at the micro-blogging website said that it interrupted attempts to access user data, and that attackers stole 250,000 users' login names, email addresses and encrypted passwords. One of those users was Rory Cellan-Jones, a journalist who covers technology for the BBC. The attack follows other high-profile hacking attacks, inlcluding China-based hackers' inflitrating computer systems at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and Anonymous's hijack of the US Sentencing Commission's website.

Twitter is fast becoming a discovery channel for TV and a creative canvas for advertisers, according to the social network's UK director Bruce Daisley. Speaking at Twitter's Powered By Tweets event for the creative industry in London, Daisley said information is traveling further and faster on the social network with 1 billion tweets sent every 2.5 days. "We have gone from being about transmitting short bursts of information to becoming the pulse of the planet," he said.