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9:55 AM ET, January 20, 2012

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Why the feds smashed Megaupload  —  The US government dropped a nuclear bomb on “cyberlocker” site Megaupload today, seizing its domain names, grabbing $50 million in assets, and getting New Zealand police to arrest four of the site's key employees, including enigmatic founder Kim Dotcom.
RELATED:
Molly Wood / CNET:
Anonymous goes nuclear; everybody loses?  —  #OpMegaUpload: like watching “War Games” play out, but with cyber-bombs.  —  In the aftermath of the Jan. 18 SOPA/PIPA blackout protests, the Internet community had amassed quite a bit of goodwill, flexed its muscles in a friendly, humorous …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload!  —  The feds shut down MegaUpload a few hours ago.  Eight people we charged with criminal copyright infringement charges, and all files hosted on the site were pulled offline.  However, do the feds realize that hundreds of thousands …
Josh Harkinson / Mother Jones:
Inside Anonymous' “Largest Attack Ever”  —  Yesterday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, working with police in New Zealand, arrested the leaders of the popular file sharing service MegaUpload.com and scrubbed the site from the internet, alleging that it supports widespread copyright infringement.
Adrian Chen / Gawker:
The Evil New Tactic Behind Anonymous' Massive Megaupload Revenge Attack  —  The hacktivist collective Anonymous is in the middle of a huge revenge spree after the Feds shut down popular filesharing site Megaupload today.  But they're using an evil new tactic that tricks people into helping their attack if they click an innocuous link.
Greg Sandoval / CNET:   Megaupload assembles worldwide criminal defense
Zack O'Malley Greenburg / Forbes:
Swizz Beatz Does Not Own Megaupload, Says Court Filing
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Justice Department calls MegaUpload an 'international organized criminal enterprise …
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
The Mega empire: Details of the MegaUpload indictment
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Anonymous claims DOJ and record label site takedowns in response to MegaUpload suit
David Pierson / Los Angeles Times:
U.S. website blackout draws praise in China  —  Internet users in China speak admiringly of the public rebellion against anti-piracy bills in Congress.  Such a display would be nearly impossible in China.  —  Protesters demonstrate against U.S. online piracy legislation outside the offices …
Discussion: Letter from China
RELATED:
Thomas Lane / TPM:
Full Reid Statement On PIPA  —  Sen. Harry Reid's office has just distributed the following email: Washington, D.C. - Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement today on the Senate's PROTECT I.P. Act: “In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act. ”
Discussion: Washington Post
New York Times:
Dodd Calls for Hollywood and Silicon Valley to Meet  —  WASHINGTON — When Jack Valenti walked the halls of Congress, friends by the dozen gripped, grinned and took note of what was worrying the movie industry's dapper chief lobbyist.  —  Christopher J. Dodd now fills Mr. Valenti's shoes.
Nate Cochrane / Sydney Morning Herald:
Father of the web backs SOPA protests
Discussion: Business Insider
Senator Harry Reid / @senatorreid:
In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the PROTECT IP Act #PIPA
Discussion: Business Insider and Reuters
Larry Kramer / C-Scape:
SOPA: We Can Fix This  —  The problem with the fight over SOPA …
Thanks:@niubi
Dan Wineman / venomous porridge:
The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA  —  Apple just released iBooks Author, a free Mac app for creating digital books for the new version of iBooks.  I haven't played with it much, but so far it looks like a very good tool.  However, a curious thing happens when you go to export your work in iBooks format:
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:   Kno CEO Osman Rashid To Apple: “Now We Will Fight On Who Has The Better Product”
Megan Garber / The Atlantic Online:
A Brief History of Textbooks, or, Why Apple's ‘New Textbook Experience’ Is Actually Revolutionary
Discussion: CNET, AnandTech, Epicenter and Snarkmarket
Greg Sandoval / CNET:
Facebook in talks to replace YouTube as Vevo's host  —  Facebook has held talks with Vevo about moving the music-video service away from YouTube and over to the social network's platform, sources with knowledge of the talks told CNET.  —  While the sources said the discussions are very preliminary …
Google Investor Relations:
Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2011 Results  —  Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter and the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011.  —  “Google had a really strong quarter ending a great year.  Full year revenue was up 29% …
RELATED:
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Mannheim court rejects the first one of Samsung's German lawsuits against Apple  —  Judge Andreas Voss of the Mannheim Regional Court just pronounced his ruling on the first one of Samsung's seven patent infringement claims against Apple in Germany.  Samsung's complaint over a patent declared essential …
Geoff Duncan / Digital Trends:
Is ‘5G’ mobile broadband just around the corner?  IMT-Advanced explained  —  Can't wait to get on the 4G LTE bandwagon?  Think bigger.  A new standard called IMT-Advanced promises speeds up to 10 times faster, and it's just been approved.  —  With Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint racing …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Damning Evidence Emerges In Google-Apple “No Poach” Antitrust Lawsuit  —  Next week a class-action civil lawsuit will be heard in San Jose to determine if Google, Apple, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intel, and Intuit conspired to eliminate competition for skilled labor.
Donald Melanson / Engadget:
Don't call it an ultrabook  —  Every year at CES, the tech-watching masses engage in a bit of trendspotting — an attempt to identify the one or two big themes of the show that may or may not come to define the year in technology.  Some years those are easy to spot (tablets and 3D TV …
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
The Valley Girl Takes On Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg (Video)  —  Double snaps to Jesse Draper, whose kookified online interview show, “The Valley Girl Show,” managed to get a very decent interview with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.  —  And by decent, I mean that Draper actually elicits …
Discussion: TechCrunch
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Who Says Intel Is Weak?  Just Look at Those Crazy Numbers!  —  Chipmaker Intel has grown its annual revenue by nearly $20 billion in two years.  Let that thought sink in for a minute.  —  In 2011 it crossed the threshold of $50 billion in annual sales for the first time, having hit the $40 billion mark only last year.
David Goldman / CNN Money:
At $400 billion, Apple is worth more than Greece  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Apple's value on the stock market briefly rose to $400 billion on Thursday, a record high for what was already the world's most valuable technology company.  —  The company's market cap slipped below the $400 billion mark …
 
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 More Items: 
Hana Stewart-Smith / Unboxing Asia Blog:
China expands micro-blogging ‘online accountability’ regulation
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
Time Warner Cable app streams live TV to iPhones, no longer iPad-only
Discussion: Gotta Be Mobile and Electronista
Forbes:
Hackers Target Children as Adults Wise Up to Spam
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Bitly Rolls Out New Enterprise Dashboard, Providing Better Access To The Real-Time Social Web
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Does Google Have An Interest In Pinterest?
Discussion: Electronista
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple Store coming to London's world-famous Harrods department store
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Why Kodak's bankruptcy should scare Nokia
Adrianne Jeffries / Betabeat:
Layoffs at Lot18: 15 Percent of Employees Were Just Let Go From Fast-Growing Luxury Discount Site
 Earlier Items: 
Antonio Rodriguez / The Grain:
How iOS can lose: the independent developer as a canary in the coal mine
Matt Lynley / Business Insider:
Path Is Raising A Big Funding Round To Go With Its Shiny New App
Nancy Messieh / The Next Web:
Death sentence for Iranian programmer accused of developing software used by porn sites
Melanie Lee / Reuters:
China's challenge to the iPad raises a red flag
Discussion: TechEye, Techland and CNET
Summify:
Summify Joins The Flock At Twitter!
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Substack, very deliberately, tries to have it both ways by saying publications on their platform are independent while presenting them all as parts of Substack

 
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