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8:15 PM ET, January 20, 2012

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
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 …
RELATED:
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Follow the traffic: What MegaUpload's downfall did to the web  —  MegaUpload, the file-sharing community, has had its physical offices raided by the FBI and its site shut down (although it may be back up) because the U.S. government says it has violated copyright.
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Explainer: How can the US seize a “Hong Kong site” like Megaupload?  —  The Megaupload takedown, and the arrest of its key employees, might seem to vindicate late 1990s worries about the Internet and jurisdiction.  Does putting a site on the 'Net, though it might be hosted anywhere in the world …
Discussion: Technologizer
Jeremy Pelofsky / Reuters:
Megaupload site wants assets back, to fight charges  —  (Reuters) - The Internet website Megaupload.com, shut down by authorities over allegations that it illegally peddled copyrighted material, is trying to recover its servers and get back online, a lawyer for the company said on Friday.
Adrian Chen / Gawker:
The Evil New Tactic Behind Anonymous' Massive Megaupload Revenge Attack
Josh Harkinson / Mother Jones:
Inside Anonymous' “Largest Attack Ever”
Discussion: SlashGear
Y Combinator:
RFS 9: Kill Hollywood  —  Hollywood appears to have peaked.  If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline.  But this is not an ordinary industry.  The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected …
RELATED:
Paul Kane / Washington Post:
SOPA, PIPA votes to be delayed in House and Senate
Nick Bilton / Bits:
Investment Firm Y Combinator Goes on Offensive Against Hollywood
Discussion: VatorNews and VentureBeat
Matthew Yglesias / Slate:   5 Lessons From The SOPA/PIPA Fight
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 …
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Google to Shut Down Picnik, Social Graph API and Urchin, Open-Sourcing Sky Map  —  Google's spring cleaning campaign continues, the the company just announced the closure of a number of products, including the popular Picnik online photo editor which, until recently, was integrated into Yahoo's Flickr, for example.
Steven Sinofsky / MSDN Blogs:
Engineering Windows 8 for mobile networks … People want similar mobility on their PCs as they get on their smartphones.  —  It is unlikely that your end goal is just to get connected to the Internet.  Instead, connecting to the Internet is a step (or a hurdle) towards what you really want to do …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Publisher Terry McGraw on Steve Jobs and Digital Textbooks: “This Was His Vision”  —  After Apple's big education presentation yesterday, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw chatted with a gaggle of reporters, and explained things like the logic behind $15 digital textbooks.
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
New Google Accounts Require Gmail and Google+  —  If you try to create a Google account from Google's homepage, you'll notice that Google redesigned the page, but that's not all.  You'll now have to create a Gmail account, a Google Profile and you'll automatically join Google+.
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Zynga Confirms It Is Seeking Partners for Online Gambling Initiatives  —  Zynga is getting ready to try its hand at online gambling.  —  The company has confirmed to All Things D that it is actively investigating several opportunities, and is in talks with several partners about gambling on the Internet.
Rebecca J. Rosen / The Atlantic Online:
Microsoft Calls for Gay Marriage in Washington State  —  The company argues that it's hard to hire the best people in the world when the state where it's based discriminates against them.  —  In a week of tech industry protests about censorship, one company — Microsoft …
Daniel Frankel / paidContent:
Longtime Netflix Marketing Chief Leslie Kilgore Bumped To The Board  —  In a move that seems designed to shore up confidence in its communications skills following the Qwikster and price-hike debacle, longtime Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) marketing chief Leslie Kilgore is moving to the board.
Nitasha Tiku / Betabeat:
Layoffs Underway at Gilt Groupe Right Now: ‘General Atmosphere Is Terrifying’  —  Last Wednesday, Betabeat broke the news of impending layoffs at Gilt Groupe.  Later that morning, CEO Kevin Ryan downgraded the estimates we had heard, telling AllThingsD that the company intended to …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
‘Absinthe A5’ Brings First Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iPad 2  —  Noted iOS jailbreak author pod2g has teamed up with the Chronic Dev Team to release “Absinthe A5”, an enhancement to the popular Greenpois0n jailbreaking tool which adds the ability to perform an untethered jailbreak …
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
Foxconn Responds To CEO's “Employees Are Animals” Comment  —  Foxconn responded to yesterday's kerfuffle about the CEO of Foxconn, Terry Gou, commenting that he cared for “a million animals” - namely his employees.  They said it was an off-the-cuff remark, similar to saying that managing is like …
Discussion: Business Insider and PandoDaily
 
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 More Items: 
Kori Schulman / White House.gov Blog:
The White House Joins Google+
Discussion: Hillicon Valley and Gov 2.0
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Home Depot Acquires Home Services Marketplace Redbeacon
Discussion: VatorNews, GigaOM and Redbeacon
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Tremor Video Acquires ‘InPlay’ Video Analytics Tech From TubeMogul
Discussion: TVexchanger.com and Beet.TV
Tanzina Vega / New York Times:
For Online Privacy, Click Here
Danielle Kucera / Bloomberg:
PayPal Will Expand In-Store Payments
Discussion: CNET, GigaOM, PhoneArena and Phone Scoop
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
First Look: Backplane, The Lady Gaga-Backed Community Platform With All-Star Investors (Invites)
Discussion: PC Magazine and The Verge
Neil Callanan / Bloomberg:
Facebook Weighs Expanding European HQ
Adrianne Jeffries / Betabeat:
Union Square Ventures Leading Series B in Iowa-Based Dwolla for About $10 M.
 Earlier Items: 
Ben Drawbaugh / Engadget:
TiVo Premiere updates rolling out to the masses
Discussion: SlashGear
David Carnoy / CNET:
Exede: The satellite broadband service you've been waiting for?
Discussion: Examiner
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
The Great and Powerful Reddit
Discussion: The Atlantic Wire
Donald Melanson / Engadget:
Don't call it an ultrabook  —  Every year at CES …
Discussion: Technologizer
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Mannheim court rejects the first one of Samsung's German lawsuits against Apple
 

 
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

Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Trump says Republicans must kill the PRESS Act, which would protect journalists' records and sources from the US government; the bill is stalled in the Senate

 
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