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MySpace named MTV executive Courtney Holt as president of MySpace Music, concluding a months-long search for a candidate to run the social network's joint venture with the world's largest music companies. Holt, whose appointment has been the subject of online speculation for weeks, has had a career that bridges music and technology. As executive vice president of digital music for MTV Networks, he oversaw digital initiatives for the MTV, VH1 and CMT channels.

A Midwestern mother accused of using a fake MySpace account to torment a teenager who later committed suicide thought the plan was a clever and funny way to deal with a girl she suspected was spreading lies about her daughter, according to witnesses Thursday. Ashley Grills, who was testifying under a grant of immunity, said that Lori Drew was directly involved in creating the bogus MySpace profile of a 16-year-old boy that was used to lure Megan Meier, 13, into an online relationship.

A Michigan man is facing a stalking charge after he showed up at the door of a Thousand Oaks woman he had been sending unwanted messages to for more than a year on the social website MySpace, Ventura County authorities said. George Costales, 39, was arrested Wednesday and is being held in the main Ventura County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail, officials said. He faces a single count of felony stalking.

In one of the largest office leases in the Los Angeles region in more than a decade, Fox Interactive Media on Monday agreed to rent 421,000 square feet of space in the Playa Vista development south of Marina del Rey. Real estate developer Lincoln Property Co. said that Fox Interactive -- which includes popular social-networking website MySpace -- will occupy almost all of the space in two buildings under construction in the Horizon at Playa Vista complex.

MySpace can collect $6 million from a notorious Internet marketer accused by the popular online hangout of spamming its users. An arbitrator has ruled that Scott Richter and his Web marketing company, Media Breakaway of Westminster, Colo., must pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in attorney's fees for barraging MySpace members with unsolicited advertisements. Media Breakaway and its employees were also banned from the site. MySpace, a unit of News Corp.

An animal rights organization is urging the Orange County district attorney's office to "vigorously" prosecute a man who took a video of himself abusing rabbits and a dog, then posted it on MySpace, calling his behavior "extremely severe." Joseph Anthony Deiss, 19, of Yorba Linda was charged last week with three counts of animal cruelty and three charges of animal abuse by a caretaker after allegedly throwing a pug and two rabbits 15 to 30 feet in the air and allowing them to hit the ground.

The online hangout MySpace is expanding its offerings for Latinos, adding eight bilingual communities focused on bands and celebrities, soccer and other interests. The year-old MySpace Latino has largely been a translation of MySpace's English-language site into Spanish. Beginning Tuesday, MySpace is unveiling content geared to one of the fastest-growing groups online. "It's been something they've been asking for," said Victor Kong, the Miami-based managing director for MySpace Latino.

MySpace, the top social networking site owned by News Corp., is in talks to create an online music joint venture with the four biggest record companies, sources familiar with the discussion said Wednesday. The talks are part of Rupert Murdoch's plans to distinguish MySpace, a haven for new music fans, from fast-moving rival Facebook as the premier destination for digital media. Plans for the service, tentatively named MySpace Music, are still in the discussion phase.

new york -- Spin Magazine's print subscriptions jumped in January at least in part for a surprising reason: Its pages were posted on the Web for free. Spin Digital, a highly interactive online version of the magazine, quietly made its debut on MySpace three weeks ago. It feels more like the print edition of the rock-music monthly than its Internet cousin, Spin.com. In fact, the digital version is the print edition.

Memo to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: You can't be late for live television. Clinton was tardy Saturday to a satellite feed from Tucson for a live broadcast of an MTV candidate forum -- forcing the surprised hosts to fill nearly 15 minutes with chatter and interviews with the studio audience.