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.
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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 …
Discussion:
Techdirt, The Not-So Private Parts, Gizmodo, Pastebin, Telegraph, UPROXX, eWeek, The Next Web, GigaOM, Pocket-lint, Billboard and WatchingTV Online, more at Mediagazer »
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 …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, New York Times, ExtremeTech and FACT magazine
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.
Discussion:
Business Insider, New York Times, TechCrunch, SlashGear, ITProPortal, The Firewall and InfoWorld, more at Mediagazer »
Greg Sandoval / CNET:
Megaupload assembles worldwide criminal defense — The FBI has begun extradition proceedings in New Zealand to bring Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz, to the United States to face racketeering, money laundering and Internet piracy charges. — Kim DotCom, aka Kim Schmitz, appears in a New Zealand court …
Adrian Chen / Gawker:
The Evil New Tactic Behind Anonymous' Massive Megaupload Revenge Attack
Discussion:
Guardian, Help Net Security, Fast Company, Naked Security, Gizmodo, paidContent, Geekologie, New York Times, FT Tech Hub, Forbes and paidContent:UK
Zack O'Malley Greenburg / Forbes:
Swizz Beatz Does Not Own Megaupload, Says Court Filing
Discussion:
Ben Parr's Entrepreneurial …, Threat Level, SlashGear, BET.com, The Next Web, Rolling Stone and paidContent, more at Mediagazer »
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, CNET, OpenCongress, Threat Level, The Next Web, Threat Level, @arrington and GigaOM
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Senator Harry Reid / @senatorreid:
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Reuters, Business Insider, TechCrunch, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Digital Trends, Ars Technica, PandoDaily, Reuters, NBC Bay Area, Kotaku and Destructoid, more at Mediagazer »
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
PIPA and SOPA votes shelved. Your move, web. — Update: After this story was published, House Judiciary chairman and the co-sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) also said he would postpone the vote to bring SOPA out of committee (it's buried at the bottom of his statement on the Protect IP Act here).
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, DSLreports, The Firewall, Computerworld, paidContent, Policy Blog and Uncrunched
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.
Discussion:
The Verge, Hillicon Valley, Hollywood Reporter, Digital Trends, @johnolilly, Techdirt and MediaPost
Nate Cochrane / Sydney Morning Herald:
Father of the web backs SOPA protests
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Business Insider
David Pierson / Los Angeles Times:
U.S. website blackout draws praise in China
Discussion:
Letter from China
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Europe Says It Won't Adopt ‘Bad’ Digital Policy Like SOPA
Discussion:
Tech Europe, PandoDaily, The Verge, Guardian, The Next Web and Inquirer
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:
Discussion:
The Register, paidContent, David Smith, PandoDaily, TUAW, The Ed Bott Report Blog, Daring Fireball, The Apple Core Blog, MacRumors, Gizmodo, Matt Gemmell, SiliconFilter, Business Insider, CNET, Hack Education, Learn to Duck, VentureBeat, The Network Garden, 9to5Mac, Epicenter, The Verge, ReadWriteWeb, MacStories, The Next Web, Techie Buzz, Mashable!, iDownloadBlog.com, L.A. Times Tech Blog, @segphault, Computerworld, PC World and 9to5Mac, more at Mediagazer »
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Paul Carr / PandoDaily:
iBooks Author Is Not Going To Hurt Publishers. It Might Even Help Them
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Macworld, TeleRead, Softpedia News, GigaOM and PalmAddicts, more at Mediagazer »
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Do we want textbooks to live in Apple's walled garden?
Discussion:
AllThingsD, SiliconANGLE, Epicenter and Techland
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Kno CEO Osman Rashid To Apple: “Now We Will Fight On Who Has The Better Product”
Discussion:
PC World
Megan Garber / The Atlantic Online:
A Brief History of Textbooks, or, Why Apple's ‘New Textbook Experience’ Is Actually Revolutionary
Discussion:
CNET, AnandTech, The Toybox Blog 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 …
Discussion:
The Tech Trade, paidContent, Gizmodo, Marketing Land, PandoDaily, Business Insider, Electronista and The Next Web
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% …
Discussion:
The Tech Trade, Telegraph, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, Techland, Internet Evolution, John Battelle's Search Blog, New York Times, Search Engine Roundtable, L.A. Times Tech Blog, MediaNama, eWeek, The Next Web, memeburn, The Next Web, CNET, Business Insider, TechCrunch, WinBeta, The Register, Bloomberg, Inside Social Games, GeekWire, MarketWatch, Social Markets, VentureBeat, Telegraph, The New Persuaders, Forbes, Mercury News, ITworld.com, Light Reading, Search Engine Watch, Between the Lines Blog, Mercury News, Business Insider, The Verge, MobileSyrup.com, ReadWriteWeb, WebProNews and SplatF, more at Mediagazer »
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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 …
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
The Great and Powerful Reddit — How the site went from a second-tier aggregator to the Web's unstoppable force. — Of all the sites that went dark on Wednesday to protest Congress' misguided anti-piracy legislation, Reddit was the one I missed most. Sure, there were a couple times …
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.
Discussion:
The Register, Engadget, Communications …, Electronista and 9to5Mac
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.
Discussion:
Fortune, Between the Lines Blog, News Stories, Wall Street Journal, Neowin.net and The Tech Report
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 …
Discussion:
itu.int, Phone Scoop, The Verge and MobileSyrup.com
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+.
Discussion:
Marketing Land, Business Insider, 9to5Google, The Next Web and Softpedia News, Thanks:@sidharthdassani
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 …
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TechCrunch
