Just one week after talks had resumed, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Writers Guild Association of America hit another impasse in their negotiations over digital media compensation. In a proposal last week, the writers demanded 3 percent from digital sales, or $632 every time a 60-minute show is broadcast 100,000 times on the Web, plus similar increases for each additional 100,000 broadcasts. In his response, Alliance negotiator Nick Counter said in a statement that the Writer's Guild was asking for "money that doesn't exist, restrictions that are legally dubious and control over people …

It's been another interesting week for the music industry: first, Nine Inch Nails rocker Trent Reznor spurns his record label by launching a new site that lets users remix his music, then a whole group of artists and managers say they've created a consortium of musicians that wish to release new music and videos independent of their former labels, letting users interact with the content in their own way. It's called the Coalition for Artists and Stake Holders. The group aims to create "a way forward" for musicians that is as sustainable and exciting for the audience as …

Yahoo is readying a new destination site for technology investors. Called TechTicker, the new program serves up video, blog posts and live coverage of breaking news inside the industry. The move is yet another example of Yahoo moving away from entertainment/original content and toward business news coverage. News has been the most successful component of its content business; its Yahoo News service is the No. 1 destination/distributor of news on the Web, while its Yahoo Finance service is one of the most successful financial sites. TechTicker is far from complete, however. Yahoo is in the midst of …

American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines will begin offering in-flight Web service over the next few months for approximately $10 per flight. JetBlue Airways will start offering free email and instant messaging on one of its planes this Tuesday. "In a few years time, if you get on a flight that doesn't have Internet access, it will be like walking into a hotel room that doesn't have TV," says Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research. Imagine what Web access on airplanes will do: In-flight phone calls via Skype, free entertainment provided by YouTube, MySpace, NBC.com, and …

Not all dire predictions about the Web came true. The Internet is not a world apart. People play and even work online, but the Web and new media only enhance communication with the outside world. Those who conduct business over the Web still have to pay taxes. That includes those who make a living selling objects in virtual worlds like Second Life; these people are even resorting to real-world lawsuits to protect their intellectual property. On a sadder note, countries have even managed to censor the Internet by imposing physical borders on it. Some of the …

Niche publishers always walk a fine line between the editorial and promotional sides of the business, and right now there's an interesting bit of controversy happening to video game publisher Gamespot.com. Last week, long-time Gamespot editor Jeff Gertsmann was fired after giving a harsh review to "Kane & Lynch: Dead Man," a high-profile title from Eidos Interactive, one of Gamespot's biggest advertisers. Gamespot owner CNET fervently denies the firing has anything to do with the review, but the industry is asking questions. Video game sites walk that fine line between advertising and editorial content. For example, game publishers …

AT&T has followed Verizon Wireless in opening up its cellular network, but the big announcement is much ado about nothing. AT&T is allowing customers to join on a month-to-month basis; existing customers will have to see out their contracts. Like Verizon, the telecom giant will allow any unlocked GSM phones to run on its network (as long as it supports AT&T's frequencies. Customers will also be able to choose any operating system-Windows Mobile, Symbian, Opera, Android, whatever. Most of this information was revealed (or at least hinted at) when Google unveiled Android several weeks ago. The bigger …

Entertainment giant the Walt Disney Company on Thursday unveiled a new Web portal aimed at young adults that showcases the media giant's movie, music, social networking and game offerings. Yesterday's launch was the UK-version; similar rollouts are scheduled for France, Italy, Spain and German. The heart of the new site is a feature called Disney Extreme Digital, which allows kids mash-up and share Disney multimedia content with their friends. They can also distribute movie & TV clips, games and messages. Parents will he happy to hear that the site prompts kids to use polite online chat. …

Facebook has now apologized and changed Beacon for the second time in a week, but for many, it's still not enough. In his apology/update blog posting, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg reveals nothing about this process, although he says users now have the option of turning Beacon off altogether. And while Facebook claims that user activity on Beacon partner sites won't be stored, that doesn't mean the data isn't collected, interpreted and then sold to advertisers. If that's the case, the failure to reveal the practice is dishonest, at best. But Forbes.com says the move is all about …

Nielsen Media built its empire as an arbiter of the media world, providing neutral third-party data for buyers and sellers of advertising. Now, in a partnership with the digital watermarking company Digimarc, it aims to referee the controversial world of online video through a new service that controls how copyrighted video is distributed on the Web. Customers of the new service would be traditional media giants like NBC Universal and Disney, social networks like Facebook and video sharing sites like YouTube. Each has a different stake in online video: content producers like NBC want control over their …