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.
Discussion:
Digits, PC Magazine, PC World, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, TechnoLlama, Techdirt, FierceCIO News, SlashGear, Ars Technica, The Register, Techie Buzz and Computerworld, more at Mediagazer »
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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:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, Pastebin, Guardian, Techdirt, Gizmodo, The Not-So Private Parts, WebProNews, eWeek, Telegraph, UPROXX, The Next Web and Pocket-lint, more at Mediagazer »
Carl Franzen / TPM Livewire:
Former Sen. Chris Dodd, MPAA CEO, Blasts Congress For Halting SOPA and PIPA — Former Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), now the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, released a statement late Friday morning responding to the sudden announcements earlier from Congressional leaders …
Discussion:
MPAA Blog and @dannysullivan
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:
ReadWriteWeb, ExtremeTech, Computerworld, TechCrunch, New York Times, FACT magazine and Dice Blog Network
Paul Kane / Washington Post:
SOPA, PIPA votes to be delayed in House and Senate — Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), author of the Stop Online Privacy Act, said on Friday that he is postponing consideration of the bill in response to concerns from critics who said the bill could lead to censorship.
Discussion:
The Verge, Macworld, ReadWriteWeb, Gizmodo, Congressman Issa, Business Insider, TechCrunch, CNET, DSLreports, Ars Technica, The Firewall, Digital Trends, L.A. Times Tech Blog, paidContent, PandoDaily, PC World, Ars Technica, Threat Level, Reuters, Pocket-lint, OpenCongress, Electronista, NBC Bay Area, Policy Blog, Destructoid, Michael Geist Blog, Politico, CNET, Kotaku, @arrington, The Next Web and Threat Level, more at Mediagazer »
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.
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, TechCrunch, New York Times, SlashGear, ITProPortal, The Firewall and InfoWorld, more at Mediagazer »
Zack O'Malley Greenburg / Forbes:
Swizz Beatz Does Not Own Megaupload, Says Court Filing
Discussion:
newsfeed.time.com, The Next Web, Ben Parr's Entrepreneurial …, SlashGear, paidContent:UK, BET.com, Threat Level and Rolling Stone
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.
Discussion:
CNET, 9to5Mac, LAPTOP Magazine, TG Daily, MacRumors, PhoneArena, Electronista, Softpedia News and Examiner
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Paul Carr / PandoDaily:
iBooks Author Is Not Going To Hurt Publishers. It Might Even Help Them
Discussion:
Ars Technica, LAPTOP Magazine, Macworld and TeleRead, more at Mediagazer »
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Do we want textbooks to live in Apple's walled garden?
Discussion:
Business Insider, LAPTOP Magazine, PandoDaily, The Register, paidContent, iPhone Hacks and venomous porridge, more at Mediagazer »
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:
AnandTech, The Toybox Blog, CNET and Epicenter
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 …
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:
TPM, Techdirt, digiphile, The Verge, Hollywood Reporter, Hillicon Valley, Uncrunched, Techdirt, Digital Trends, MediaPost and @johnolilly
RELATED:
Nate Cochrane / Sydney Morning Herald:
Father of the web backs SOPA protests
Discussion:
@senatorreid, GigaOM, @timberners_lee and 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:
CNET, Computerworld, Tech Europe, AllThingsD, PandoDaily, The Verge, Guardian, The Next Web and Inquirer
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:
ReadWriteWeb, Between the Lines Blog, Marketing Land, Business Insider, The Next Web, 9to5Google, Ars Technica, msnbc.com, Webmonkey and Softpedia News, Thanks:@sidharthdassani
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 …
Discussion:
CNET, Reuters, DailyTech, BGR, The Verge, PC World, Electronista, Engadget, Softpedia News, iDownloadBlog.com, London Calling Blog, Inquirer, Macgasm, Android Phone Fans, Ubergizmo, PalmAddicts, Redmond Pie, MobileBurn.com and Fast Company
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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 …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Wire
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:
Business Insider, BGR, The Register, ITworld.com, Communications …, Electronista, 9to5Mac and Engadget
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 …
Discussion:
Technologizer
David Carnoy / CNET:
Exede: The satellite broadband service you've been waiting for? — ViaSat's Exede satellite broadband service has officially launched, with an entry-level package that starts at $50 a month and promises “feels-like-fiber” performance. — Buried among the gadgets, superthin screen OLED TVs …
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, Wall Street Journal, News Stories, Between the Lines Blog and Neowin.net
Ben Drawbaugh / Engadget:
TiVo Premiere updates rolling out to the masses — Knowing an update is coming and actually getting it are two different things entirely and if you were saddened that you missed out the latest build on your TiVo Premiere or Elite early, your wait is over. TiVo has announced via …
Discussion:
Electronista
Adrianne Jeffries / Betabeat:
Union Square Ventures Leading Series B in Iowa-Based Dwolla for About $10 M. — Des Moines-based payments provider Dwolla, which enables seamless online payments for a quarter per transaction, has been a simmering hot new thing for a while. But recently the startup has had a flush of attention …
Eric Savitz / The Tech Trade:
Intel Names Kraznich COO; Perlmutter Chief Product Officer — Intel this morning promoted two of its most senior executives, and rearranged a number of other roles. The changes will contribute to ongoing speculation about who will eventually succeed current CEO Paul Otellini.
Discussion:
AllThingsD, Electronista and Bloomberg
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.
Discussion:
GeekWire, VentureBeat, Business Insider, San Francisco Chronicle, the Econsultancy blog and PandoDaily
Owen Fletcher / China Real Time Report:
China Telecom-Compatible iPhone Gets Regulatory Nod — Chinese Apple fans upset over the company's decision to temporarily halt sales of the iPhone 4S at its retail stores in China may soon have another way to get their hands on the device. An iPhone compatible with the mobile network …
Discussion:
Macgasm, Macworld, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, Ubergizmo, MacNN and Computerworld
