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Reportedly, copyright watchdog Recording Association of Vietnam (RIAV) has  filed a $3 million lawsuit against FPT Telecom and Nokia Vietnam for violating intellectual property rights. I know, I know. Who would have thought that such a group existed right? Since copyright law is virtually nonexistent in Vietnam. Appearently, RIAV, which was founded in 2003, represents 60 music production companies throughout Vietnam, is suing both companies over allegations of copyright infringement for using 10,446 songs of RIAV’s members commercially without permission.

Earlier this month, RIAV said that it was going to initiate a lawsuit against FPT Telecom for sharing recorded music over the internet via its website, Nhac So, and using copyrighted materials on FPT Telecom’s internet television service, IPTV. After a failed attempt for a settlement between the two companies, RIAV also filed a suit against Nokia Vietnam for allowing its customers to download 1,000 copyrighted songs from a 10,466 song database through Nhac So.

According to Nokia, FPT admitted that it may not have the necessary rights for all of the music content on their website even though FPT Online had previously confirmed to Nokia that they had the legal rights for the complete music content on their website, and place the blame squarely on FPT.

So, why is Nokia dealing with FPT in the first place? Because RIAV do not own most of the music copyright. In fact, artists own it directly, and NhacSo (FPT) have signed many contract with those artists. So NhacSo have full legal right to distribute most but not all the music.

On related news, other music producers, namely HT Production and Kim Loi Studio, have also jointly sued multimedia company VTC Intercom for selling copyrighted music to mobile phone service provider Viettel Mobile through the service of I-muzik, which provide ringtones to subscripers.

Sources: here, here, and here.

The biggest news of the days is the news that Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo for about $44.6 billions in cash and stocks. Yahoo stocks soared almost 50% on the news, pushing it to its highest levels in months. If the deal goes through, Google will have a time keep up with the two giants. Of course, we are still waiting to see if Google will try to outbid Microsoft or not. A deal with Microsoft would be a great outcome for Yahoo shareholders, who have grown increasingly frustrated with Yahoo’s stock performance, according CNBC via (RBC Capital Markets analyst Jordan Rohan). He expects Yahoo founders and insiders to support the deal.

 Of all the mergers/takeovers talks over Yahoo, including NewsCorp (FoxNews, MySpace), Microsoft’s proposal seems the be the most promising. If this will indeed happen, Google might enjoy a brief moment of peace while Microsoft and Yahoo work out the operation details. Since two companies share lots of similar services, the merger will have a huge impact on the brandings, with many services ending up in the deadpool, not to mention the likelyhood of massive staff layoffs/downsizings.

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In recent years, consumers electronics and telecommunication companies had been trying to bring gamers into their mobile phone business. This was done either by implementing games into their mobile devices. Here is a twist to that old convention, Sony had teamed up with Ebay’s Skype division to bring you VOIP on your PSP. It is confirmed that mobiles gamers can now transform their PSP into mobile communication device. PSP owners can download the firmware update as well as an application that allow them to make free PSP to PSP and PSP to PC calls via wifi; or they could sign up for Skype VOIP service to make it their own landline. The application will allows users to ultilize Skype’s service as well as other new features on a PSP.

This is great news for gamers since now they can just carry one essential device on the go and still be able to connect with their family and friends. As a down side with most VOIP, the signal strength will be limited by their connection bandwidth, this might be a drag since you need a wifi hotspot in order to make a phonecall. Hopefully, Sony will partner with various other telecommunication companies to allow users to use their PSP just like a mobile phone. Until then, making a call is as essential as finding a good wifi hotspot.

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Fortune’s recently released (and highly subjective) list of 25 most powerful people in business named many of the tech industry people as the movers and shakers of the world. At the top of the food chain is Apple’s chairman and CEO, Steve Jobs. Not much surprises there. Many may doubt the number one position, but they surely can’t disagree with his name being in the list. Runner up is Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul, who acquired Down Jones for $5 billion, and more recently scooped up Myspace for $580 million in 2005.

Wait, is Bill Gates still in the list? Yes, he is. He’s number 7. Not bad for a guy who only work part-time now, and soon to be “retired”. Among the tech people who made the list are the Google cofounders at #4, Cisco’s CEO at 11, and HP’s CEO at 16. For the complete list, check out the source link.

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