Top Items:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Amazon Completes DRM-Free Roster With Sony-BMG — For anyone who was bummed about the hoops they were going to have to jump through to get DRM-free songs from Sony-BMG artists, by the end of the month you will be able to download those songs at Amazon's MP3 store.
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Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Sony BMG signs onto Amazon's DRM-free music store — It's a full hand of cards for Amazon: the Web's mega-retailer announced Thursday that it will be selling music from Sony BMG Music Entertainment in its Amazon MP3 store. This means that Amazon MP3, which only sells “naked” …
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:Amazon Officially First To Drop Major DRM: Sony the Fourth …
Discussion:
Download Squad
Bruce Schneier / Wired News:
Steal This Wi-Fi — Whenever I talk or write about my own security setup, the one thing that surprises people — and attracts the most criticism — is the fact that I run an open wireless network at home. There's no password. There's no encryption. Anyone with wireless capability …
Discussion:
Techdirt, Wi-Fi Networking News, DSLreports, Boing Boing, Computerworld Blogs, Techmamas, Network World, Cathode Tan, Slashdot and Digg
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Trent Reznor: Why won't people pay $5? — UPDATE at 8:55 a.m.: The headline of the story was changed to reflect more broadly what Trent Reznor said during the interview. As some readers noted, the original headline put too much emphasis on one of Reznor's statements.
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Mathew / mathewingram.com/work:
Hey Trent — a music tax is a dumb idea — There's a great interview with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails up at CNET, in which he talks about his experience with the Saul Williams album he recently released as a “pay what you want” download (which I wrote about here).
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
LinkedIn, SixApart and Flickr People Join DataPortability.org: Is This Stuff For Real? — The Data Portability Working Group is announcing today that key people from LinkedIn, Flickr, SixApart and Twitter are joining the group. These new names are just the most visible part of a groundswell …
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Steve Ganz / The LinkedIn Blog:
Who Owns Your Data? (hint: you do) — Data portability is on a lot of people's minds right now. You don't need to be an A-list blogger trying to export your massive friend list to know that your address book is your own, nor to recognize that toting around your network can be cumbersome.
Discussion:
Insider Chatter
Variety:
Blu-ray could win high-def battle — HD DVD backers could switch sides soon — The two remaining studios backing HD DVD could switch sides soon, ending the high-def format war instantly. — Daily Variety has confirmed that Universal's commitment to backing HD DVD exclusively has ended.
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BBC:
Americans turn to online videos — Online video sharing sites are reaping the benefits of the ongoing writers' strike in the US. — According to net measurement firm Nielsen Online, some online video sites have doubled their audience since the strike began at the end of October.
Discussion:
Pew Internet, Search Engine Land, Ars Technica, IP Democracy, Jim Kukral, mathewingram.com/work, WebProNews, ReveNews Online Revenue …, Computerworld Blogs, Furrier.org, Data Center Knowledge, Voice Over Times, HipMojo.com, NewTeeVee, Reel Pop, TechCrunch, Mark Evans, broadstuff and JD on EP
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
BLOGGERS BEHAVING BADLY: GIZMODO MESSES WITH CES FLAT SCREENS — The Gizmodo kids pulled a good stunt at CES: they fired TV-B-Gone remotes at walls of shiny new monitors on display and during press conferences, much to the displeasure of booth staffers. — The video is funny.
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Heather Hopkins / Hitwise Intelligence:
Wikia Launch & Mahalo Growth — This week's launch of Wikia Search is the latest example of a human powered search engine. Mahalo and Cha-Cha are two other recent entrants. This week we've seen a spike in daily visits to Wikia Search, as you'd expect. In my digging the thing that stood as interesting to me is Mahalo's growth.
Caroline McCarthy / Webware.com:
FACEBOOK TOPS ONE LIST OF ‘SLOW AND INACCESSIBLE’ SOCIAL NETWORKS — On Thursday, Web site-monitoring firm WatchMouse released the results of a study about the performance of 104 social-media sites—social networks, blogging communities, bookmarking sites, and the like—and boldly deemed them to be overall “slow and inaccessible.”
Reuters:
New York Launches Intel Antitrust Probe — The New York attorney general has launched a formal investigation to determine whether Intel violated antitrust laws to squeeze out AMD. — Recommend this story? — NEW YORK (Reuters) - The office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo …
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Peter Lauria / New York Post:
MICROSOFT DEAL KING TO LAUNCH OWN FIRM — One of Microsoft's chief deal architects is leaving the software giant to start his own firm. — Bruce Jaffe - currently vice president of corporate development for Microsoft - plans to vacate his post at the end of February.
Wall Street Journal:
Wsj.com/opinion — Everyone knows that Joseph Schumpeter's “creative destruction” is roiling the newspaper world, and today we'd like to announce something on the creative side. We're rolling out a new Web site for the Journal editorial page offering free access to all of our editorials and op-eds, video interviews and commentary.
