Google bankrolls moon contest

Nearly 40 years after the US beat the Soviets to the moon, Internet giant Google will give $20 million to the first private group to land a roving robot on the lunar surface - a prize likely to start a 21^st Century space race, reports USA Today.

The giant purse is being offered by the X-Prize Foundation, which awarded $10 million in 2005 to the first privately-funded group to launch a human into space.

The only robotic rovers to have negotiated the rough lunar terrain were launched by the Soviets in the 1970s. A budget shortfall forced NASA this spring to cancel its plan to send a rover to cruise the moon.

Emmy-winning television show creators Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz are teaming up with MySpaceTV to distribute their new online series, Quarterlife. The first "Webisode" will air on MySpaceTV on 11 November, says Sys-con.

"When Emmy award-winning producers come to MySpaceTV you know this is reaching a whole new level," said Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace. "We're proud to offer the creative community a blank canvas and open platform to express their vision."

This announcement comes on the heels of explosive video growth driven by dozens of industry content partnerships and user interface changes. MySpaceTV is an integrated component of the company's worldwide community and content platform.

Verizon Wireless has filed a lawsuit against federal regulators, seeking to overturn rules that would allow any device or software to work on a portion of wireless airwaves being auctioned by the government, says Business Week.

The company, which filed the lawsuit on Monday, wants the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to set aside a section of the Federal Communications Commission's rules, calling it "arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law".

The agency, in late July, approved the rules for the auction, which is expected to take place no later than 28 January 2008. It is expected to raise as much as $15 billion for the US Treasury.

In an attempt to "reclaim the Internet", Prince is preparing to file lawsuits against YouTube, eBay and The Pirate Bay, for allegedly encouraging copyright violations, reports News.com. This information came from one of his representatives.

The rock star has hired Web Sheriff, a British-based company that specialises in hunting down pirated content on the Web, to launch a legal campaign against companies that wrongfully profit from the artist's work, according to John Giacobbi, Web Sheriff's president.

Prince plans to file suit in both the US and the UK, and has hired a top Swedish law firm to take action against The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent tracking site, Giacobbi said yesterday. Prince has chosen a legal course because sites like YouTube and eBay have left him no other effective way to protect his copyright on their sites, according to Giacobbi.

Japan today launched an H-2A rocket carrying the Selenological and Engineering Explorer, the country's first lunar probe satellite, from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Kagoshima Prefecture, says Xinhaunet.

Dubbed Kaguya after Japanese ancient fable, the rocket lifted off as scheduled from the centre at 10.30am on the Pacific off Japan's southern Kyushu Island. The satellite and the launch vehicle successfully separated at 11.16am.

Kaguya, which consists of a three-ton main orbiter and two 50kg sub-satellites, is equipped with 14 scientific instruments and a high-definition television camera, according to the agency's introduction.