The European Union called on Europe's music industry Wednesday to create EU-wide copyright licenses for online music, saying this would boost demand for legal downloads. Music copyrights are currently collected by national agencies, but the emergence of online music services such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes means there is growing demand for a license that covers all 25 EU nations.

Yahoo Inc. will begin featuring the work of self-published Web bloggers side by side with the work of professional journalists, leveling distinctions between the two. Yahoo News, the world's most popular Internet media destination, is set to begin testing today an expanded news search system that includes not only news stories and blogs but also user-contributed photos and related Web links.

eBay plans to pay $370 million for an online payments service operated by VeriSign, as part of a broader agreement between the two companies. eBay sees the service as a way to expand its own PayPal transactions division to a new category of small- and medium-size business customers.

Though delivery rates for permission-based e-mails rose for the third straight quarter, MSN's Hotmail and Google's Gmail filtered out more legitimate e-mails, according to a new study from Lyris Technologies.

Note to hard-core video game players: Microsoft says it is aiming for your mothers and wives. In the coming weeks, Microsoft plans to introduce a marketing campaign to expand the appeal of the new Xbox 360 game console beyond the young men who are the Xbox's biggest fans. Microsoft hopes to win a bigger share of the market from the PlayStation 2, the top-selling console made by Sony, by promoting a more family-friendly image for the new Xbox, which will be in stores starting Nov. 22.

As carriers gird for an expected surge in demand for TV mobile phones, many are looking to Qualcomm to deliver the goods.

Market research firm Compete today is expected to unveil a new private-label behavioral marketing platform. Called Voicebox, it uses desktop applications and Web toolbars to help marketers reach customers as they're on the verge of decision-making. Because Voicebox uses desktop applications and Web browser toolbars, the platform is able to keep tabs on customers wherever they go online. The tactic is similar to that used by adware players Claria and WhenU, and it may raise similar privacy concerns.

A group of 27 technology companies said on Monday they would collaborate on a new, faster Wi-Fi wireless Internet standard for computers and other portable devices. It includes some of the biggest wireless chipmakers such as Broadcom and Intel as well as network gear maker Cisco and portable computer makers Lenovo, Sony Corp and Toshiba Corp.

Mark Cuban is hiring staff that could form the nucleus of a new DVD label, Wired News has learned, a move that comes as the dot-com billionaire attempts to shatter Hollywood's release window system by making first-run films available simultaneously in theaters, on cable TV, online and on DVD.

Yahoo launched today a podcast service that offers access to much of the streaming audio on the Web and features user reviews and other information about the programming.