Three years after Viacom filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against YouTube, a federal judge threw the case out Wednesday, ruling that the Google unit could not be held responsible for the clips users post online. As a result, "Entertainment companies may find it harder to keep movie and TV show clips from circulating for free online," suggests USA Today. Conversely, "Groups that want to promote widespread Internet use also applauded the ruling, saying that most websites don't have the resources to determine whether user-supplied videos violate the law." "It …

Further distinguishing itself from Google, Bing is rolling out upwards of 100 new features, the most remarkable of which fall into a new "Bing Entertainment" category. Quite simply, Bing Entertainment will include "better ways to search for music, movies, TV shows, and games," reports TechCrunch. The new offering will also serve as an entertainment hub, allowing visitors to consume all manner of content from one central location. "We did travel, health, shopping and local last year," said Yusuf Mehdi, SVP of Microsoft's online audience business. "Now the Web has unlocked all of …

Developers view Apple's near-term outlook favorably, given its App Store, large market share and device line up, according to A recent survey of 2,733 mobile application developers conducted by mobile app development company Appcelerator. Yet, developers see Android and its broad adaptability beating out Apple over time. "It should come as no surprise that developers overwhelming picked Apple's iOS (formerly iPhone OS) mobile platform for near-term success, given its market dominance," writes ReadWriteWeb. But when asked for more details, 69% of developers said that Android's potential for long-term success was greater due to its ability to extend …

Who says Twitter is a pointless pastime? In Toronto, Virgin America is giving free flights to Twitter users whom it deems "influencers." To determine a user's influence, the airline is relying on Klout, an analytics service that tracks users' influence on Twitter based on variables like the quality and number of followers and retweets. The offer includes free round-trip airfare (Wi-Fi included) between Toronto and San Francisco, or Los Angeles between June 23 and August 23. As Mashable notes, Virgin isn't requiring influencers who take the free flight to "do" anything, be it tweet the experience or …

To date, Apple's App Store has generated $1 billion for developers, estimates Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster in a report issued to clients on Wednesday. App pricing data suggest that 81% of apps are free, and 19% are paid, with an average selling price of $1.49. Apple's gross margin on the App Store is about 44%, according to Munster, assuming 70% goes to the developer, $0.20 plus 2% of the average selling price to the credit card company, and 1% for storage and delivery. Meanwhile, Apple has generated a total of $33.7 billion in gross profit since the App Store launched, …

How many uses does Twitter's Facebook app have? Nearly 7 million, according to newly revised data from Inside Network's AppData measurement service. "And the app still appears to be growing pretty fast," notes TechCrunch. "This information is interesting because it shows just how big an app made by Facebook rival Twitter is on Facebook itself." Its 6.7 million monthly active users makes it the 40th most popular app on Facebook, according to AppData's numbers. TechCrunch also suggests that Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg might find the data interesting, particularly since he's telling anyone who'll listen at Cannes how …

All the criticism recently directed toward Mark Zuckerberg doesn't seem to have humbled the young CEO. On the contrary, Zuck is boldly predicting it is "almost a guarantee" that Facebook will reach 1 billion members -- up from more than 500 million, today. In slightly more measured words, according to the Guardian, Zuck said this week at Cannes: "If we succeed [in innovating and remaining relevant] there is a good chance of bringing this to a billion people... it will be interesting to see how it plays out." By Zuck's calculations, "We are down to just four …

Professional social network LindedIn is adding new features to its Groups offering, which lets members create an open forum around a specific subject or profession where users can comment and share news and information. Along with updating the look and feel of Groups, LindedIn is now making threaded conversations within groups similar to face-to-face professional interactions "by removing the wall between original remarks and off-site content such as news articles," reports TechCrunch. Users can now share links on Groups the same way they would on the homepage, while their profile pictures will now be attached to any …

Amid what appears to be an e-book price war, Om Malik argues that Amazon can easily defend its market leadership position -- but not because its Kindle is the superior e-reader. On the contrary, "The reading experience on the iPad is so superior to that of the Kindle I often find myself staying up later than usual reading a book." Still the GigaOm founder admits to spending, on average, about $10 every 3-5 days on Amazon's site buying a book to read using the Kindle application on the iPad. With regard to both selection and ease of …

Backing up earlier reports, unnamed sources are telling The Wall Street Journal that Google is preparing to roll out a music download service tied to its search engine later this year, followed by an online subscription service in 2011. "Google's proposals [to music industry execs] are still vague, say these people, and it's unclear whether it has struck any deals with record labels so far," The Journal reports. "But Google has been stepping up conversations about offering new music services tied to phones running its Android operating system along with the broader Web, said people who have …