Electronic Commerce

The U.S. Justice Department has demanded information from some of the world's biggest investment banks as part of a probe into online gambling in the United States, banking sources said Sunday. Internet gaming was effectively banned last year after President Bush signed legislation outlawing gaming-related financial transactions at the end of September.

A world without digital handcuffs on downloaded music sounds pretty good to Eston Bond, a 21-year old senior at the University of Michigan. Bond, a self-proclaimed music lover, is sick of the anti-piracy software that limits how he can listen to music downloaded from Apple Inc.'s iTunes and other online stores. If it weren't for those restrictions, he said, he'd buy a lot more music -- and listen to it in more ways.

Almost 80% of home buyers start their searches online, according to the National Assn. of Realtors, and 24% buy a house they first learned about on the Web. To reward this kind of initiative, several online real estate firms are giving Web-savvy buyers rebates or refunds, depending on the site, if they use and close with agents from those Web-based companies. The latest online broker to join the trend is Seattle-based www.redfin.

Blockbuster Inc. is in advanced talks to buy Movielink as a way to speed its entry into the online movie-downloading business, people familiar with the situation said. Movie-rental giant Blockbuster would pay less than $50 million in cash and stock for Movielink, which is owned by five major studios, said one of those who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal was not final. The companies declined to comment. Movielink has offered movie downloads since 2002.

A former Costa Rican beauty contestant pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges that she was part of a conspiracy to illegally sell tens of millions of dollars in prescription drugs over the Internet. Sonia Barrantes Molina, 32, was arraigned before a magistrate-judge in federal court in Brooklyn. Barrantes Molina was arrested in Florida while trying to find out the status of her boyfriend, who has also been arrested, said her attorney, Humberto Dominguez of Florida.

Amazon.com, the world's biggest online retailer, will start a separate website dedicated to classical music. Classical music was the second-fastest growing music category at Amazon.com in 2006, the Seattle-based company said. A dwindling number of music stores and shrinking classical-music sections increased demand on its website, the company said.

Spreading the word about a home you're selling yourself just got cheaper. Without paying a penny, sellers who go the FSBO (for sale by owner) route can add their houses to a Multiple Listing Service in California and 19 other states via a new online realty broker, www.iggyshouse.com. The MLS -- the biggest, most encompassing listing database of homes for sale -- has long excluded those who try to sell their homes on their own, with few exceptions.

Apple Inc., the company that popularized selling songs online for 99 cents apiece, now hopes to buoy interest in albums, giving customers credit for purchases of full albums from which they have bought individual tracks. Apple introduced the Complete My Album feature on its iTunes Store. It now gives a full credit of 99 cents for every track the user previously bought and applies it toward the purchase of the complete album.

The U.S. has failed to change its ban on Internet betting to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling that said federal law unfairly targeted offshore casinos, the trade body said Friday. The ruling opens the door to possible sanctions against the U.S. In a 215-page decision, a three-member WTO compliance panel sided with the twin-island Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, which has argued that Internet gambling is a lucrative source of revenue for islanders.

Apple Inc. and EMI Group want digital music fans to pay more money for more freedom. EMI, the world's fourth-largest record label, said Monday that it had agreed to sell its 150,000-song catalog through Apple's iTunes store without the anti-piracy software that limits which devices can play digital music. EMI acts include Coldplay and the Rolling Stones -- only the Beatles were excluded from the deal. The companies plan to charge $1.