VentureBeat

Here’s the latest action:

The Associated Press to blogs: Don’t quote us — The Associated Press has demanded that The Drudge Retort (not to be confused with much more famous Drudge Report) take down several blog posts containing excerpts of AP stories. The objections sound pretty silly — the longest excerpt was 79 words long, and quoting and linking other articles is a popular blogging practice. AP Strategy Director Jim Kennedy’s response that the excerpts were “more reproduction than reference” isn’t particularly persuasive. Kennedy later told the New York Times that the AP’s response was “heavy-handed,” but, strangely, he said the organization isn’t backing down from its initial takedown request.

Google reveals escape clause from Yahoo partnership — It looks like Google’s deal with Yahoo, through which Google will serve ads to Yahoo’s search results, is even better for Google than was initially apparent. According to a filing with the federal Securities Exchange Commission, if the partnership ever makes less than $83.3 million in four months for Google, the search giant can terminate the agreement. TechCrunch spotted the filing, and pointed out that it’s a pretty low threshold: Yahoo makes $1.3 billion every three months. Still, here’s another reason to believe that it’s a better deal for Eric Schmidt than for Jerry Yang.

Yahoo exec Weiner joins venture firms as EIR — Speaking of Yahoo, the company has lost another executive. Jeff Weiner, who was most recently in charge of core products like Yahoo.com, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger, left to be an entrepreneur-in-residence at Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, according to the Los Angeles Times. Weiner follows Andrew Bracchia, another Yahoo executive who left for Accel last year. Google just lost a big name as well: chief litigator Michael Kwan left for the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Google creating new services to fight for net neutrality — The network analysis tools will allow normal users to see if their Internet service providers are abiding by “net neutrality.” In other words, you’ll be able to make sure your ISP is giving you the best connection possible to the entire Internet, not just to websites that pay for better service. A Google policy director mentioned the project during a panel discussion on Friday.

XM/Sirius merger close to a done deal – The merger between the two satellite radio companies has just been recommend for approval by the staff of the Federal Communications Commission, meaning it’s unlikely at this point that the government will stop the deal.

Streamzy lets you search for music videos — Music startup Streamzy, which launched into the crowded online music market just a couple of weeks ago, has added some new features it hopes will set it apart from the competition: It has integrated video searches through YouTube and AOL’s Truveo. One of its competitors, Seeqpod, is already integrated with YouTube, but the ability to stream music performances via Truveo is something none of the other search engines are doing yet. Streamzy also plans to offer music and ringtone purchases shortly and to add playlist-sharing capabilities.

Orgoo to offer webmail service to existing social networks – The startup, previously known for a site that integrates email, instant messaging and SMS text messaging, will try to sell networking sites like Facebook and MySpace a solution that allows users to check their various email accounts through the social network.

[David Adewumi contributed to this article.]

Here’s the latest action:

The WB rises from the dead with a new website — The television network, famous for launching teen-aimed shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson’s Creek, merged with UPN to become the CW network in 2006. But now the WB is returning as a website. And while the nerd in me is most excited about the ad-sponsored Buffy reruns, the most interesting news is that the site will also feature original content. older shows. The goal is to attract 16- to 34-year-old women, particularly those whose TV viewing habits have already moved online.

Microsoft cutting XBox 360 prices in Asia — Prices will fall between 5 percent and 20 percent in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. That’s four out of the five Asian markets where Microsoft has officially launched the game console (the fifth is India). A Microsoft spokesperson tells us that these price adjustment are normal as foreign exchange rates fluctuate.

Metacafe owners cash out with for $5 million — Co-founders Arik Czerniak and Ofer Adler, who together owned shares representing 5 percent of the company, have left the video startup. (TechCrunch cites Israeli newspaper The Marker, whose article is in Hebrew.) The site’s traffic hasn’t grown much, which means that online video king YouTube continues to widen the gap. Czerniak stepped down as chief executive in February 2007, but he continued to serve on the company’s board — until now, apparently.

Did MSN Music betray its customers? — The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it did. Microsoft announced last week that it will stop issuing digital rights management “keys” for the defunct MSN Music service at the end of the summer, meaning that customers won’t be able to transfer their music to new computers. The EFF argues that Microsoft should apologize and compensate customers. If this story doesn’t persuade online music buyers that DRM (which also comes with most of the songs available on iTunes) can be very bad news, even for music fans who aren’t interested in illegal sharing, I don’t know what will.

Newest Morgan Stanley report finds that social applications are growing – Sure, that’s not exactly surprising news, but the report presents some pretty compelling facts to illustrate the point. For example, six out of the top 10 Internet sites are social.

Monsanto and startup Mendel Biotechnology to develop biofuel crop — It’s nice to hear the two companies say their partnership could reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On the downside, biofuels appear to be a mixed bag economically and environmentally, and Monsanto isn’t the most Earth-friendly corporation in the world.