According to new figures from the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association), the Australian music industry has seen growth for the first time since 2003.

Says Slyck: "...wholesale revenues over the full year increased almost 5% when compared to 2008. An increase in overall digital revenues was the key contributing factor to this growth, with digital albums demonstrating an increase of over 60% by revenue, more than offsetting the relatively modest decline in physical CD sales..."

Surely piracy is still killing the music industry?

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Defunct online video streaming site TV-Links has won its court case this week, years after it was taken down by Dutch law enforcement officials.

TV-Links was one of the most popular online directories on the Internet, indexing TV shows hosted on streaming video sites, legal and illegal.

In October 2007, following complaints by the U.K.'s Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), the site was taken down and its admin arrested. The case against the admin and the site was the illegal distribution of copyright protected content.

A judge ruled today that the site was not liable as linking to TV shows is not the same as distributing it.

The decision follows the recent win by Alan Ellis, the former admin of large music private tracker OiNK.

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Verizon and Skype are expected to announce a new deal on Tuesday that will bring the VoIP company to the largest cell network in the United States.

The Skype software will work via Wi-Fi and 3G, and seems to be a direct response to AT&T's recent addition of the software.

Skype is currently developing a 3G iPhone app, but it appears that it is still not completed. If the Verizon deal is accurate, the app could be available as soon as the announcement.

We will keep you updated.

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In what can only be considered a disappointment, Adobe has confirmed today that the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 will not have Flash support at launch.

"Microsoft and Adobe are working closely together. While the newest version of Windows Phone won't support Flash at initial availability, both companies are working to include a browser plug-in for the full Flash player in future versions of Windows Phone. More details will be shared at Microsoft MIX next month," reads the Adobe statement.

Windows Mobile 7 is expected to be officially launched tomorrow.

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VG247 has come upon some screenshots of the debug build of the upcoming PlayStation 3 firmware update, version 3.20, which shows that 3D video output will soon be an option.

With developers now testing the 3.20 update, it shouldn't be too long until it hits gamers, likely within the next couple of months.

The new leak follows what Sony's John Koller confirmed last month, that "It's gonna take just a simple firmware update which most people do regularly anyway, and that's all it's gonna take to accolade the PS3 to 3D gaming."

Users will of course need a 3D-capable HDTV and 3D glasses, which many consider a gimmick, but it is nice to know the option will be there, regardless.

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Google has taken down a few of the most popular music blogs available on Blogger this week, leading to an avalanche of criticism. Google, for their part says the sites were taken down after repeated copyright claims.

A few of the most popular sites, Pop Tarts, Masala, I Rock Cleveland, To Die By Your Side, It's a Rap and Living Ears were taken down without warning, but a few are back up, at their same URLs.

Blogger product manager Rick Klau wrote of the controversy: If Google receives "multiple [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] complaints about the same blog, and [we] have no indication that the offending content is being used in an authorized manner, we will remove the blog."

For their part, many of the sites in question have taken down songs before without question when asked, and some have the songs up legally.

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LG has announced at the Integrated Systems Europe show this week that it will be bringing a 15-inch OLED HDTV to the U.S. market by July.

The display will also be the first mass produced OLED TV to achieve 720p resolution, managing 1366x768. The OLED display will have a contrast ratio of over 1,000,000:1.

It is unclear what the price of the display will be, but it is expected to be between $1800 and $2200.

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A game collector has just paid an astonishing price for a 20-year old NES console on eBay, $13,105, and no, that isn't a typo.

The system came included with one of the top three rarest Nintendo classic games in existence, Stadium Events, which was released in 1987 by Bandai. There are said to be only 10 copies of the game left in the world.

Besides Stadium Events, the console came included with copies of a few other games, but the system wouldn't have likely topped $100, even with the other games.

View the auction here: ORIGINAL NINTENDO GAME SYSTEM LOT/ CONTROLLER/ 5 GAMES

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