BRUSSELS – The coast is clear for the merger of Google and DoubleClick. European regulators on Tuesday signed off on the search giant’s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of the Web’s largest banner and video advertising network.The European Commission ruled “the transaction...

HOLLYWOOD, CA — As the search continues for ways to merge traditional and new-media markets, Hollywood is testing a number of ways to engage online viewers while extending advertisers’ marketing reach.Hulu.com, a joint venture of NBC Universal and Fox, debuted Wednesday....

CHINA — As if the malware invasion weren’t bad enough, now comes word from the Associated Press that some hot electronic gadgets come pre-installed with the sorts of nasty stuff we all try not to put on them by accident post-purchase.According to the AP report, iPods,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Communications Commission — the government watchdog responsible for policing the public airwaves — does an excellent job of processing consumer complaints, but it falls short on the record keeping end, according to congressional auditors.In a...

STAUNTON, VA — After Hours Video’s owner and a clerk may have to wait until late summer to begin their trials on obscenity charges. That’s the latest word from the prosecutor’s office, which on Tuesday said the court’s docket would need to be rearranged because the pre-paid...

CYBERSPACE — Chicken Little probably didn’t have an email account or even a dial-up connection – but if a recent study is correct, he had one thing right: the sky is falling. Assuming that by “sky” one means “internet backbone” and by “falling” one means...

TOKYO — Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe died of AIDS in 1989, the year he turned 42 and the year his powerful nude photographs caused hysteria in Washington, DC. While the world has seen many changes during the past nearly two decades, the nature of Mapplethorpe’s human...

ALBANY, NY — The announcement that New York Gov. Eliot “Law and Order” Spitzer was nabbed during the bust of a high-dollar prostitution ring elicited many reactions. One of the strangest — if not least expected — was the sudden proliferation on the Web of “Client 9”...

SACRAMENTO, CA — Representatives from the adult entertainment industry have been doing at least one civic duty for more than a decade, thanks to the successful tradition known as the Free Speech Coalition’s “Celebrate Free Speech Lobbying Days.” This year’s April event will...

ORLANDO, FL — Faced with charges of racketeering and aiding prostitutes that could have scuttled the newspaper and sent at least three employees to jail, the Orlando Weekly did what any sensible Florida publisher would do.It plea-bargained its way into a dismissal of the...