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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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PC Magazine, Digits, PC World, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, TechCrunch, TechnoLlama, Techdirt, FierceCIO News, Ars Technica, The Register, SlashGear, Techie Buzz, Computerworld, TeleRead and CNET, more at Mediagazer »
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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 …
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Techdirt, The Not-So Private Parts, Gizmodo, Pastebin, eWeek, UPROXX, Telegraph, The Next Web, GigaOM and Pocket-lint, more at Mediagazer »


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 …
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Computerworld, TechCrunch, New York Times, ExtremeTech, Dice Blog Network, FACT magazine and PC World


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.


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.
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Business Insider, TechCrunch, New York Times, ITProPortal, SlashGear, The Firewall and InfoWorld, more at Mediagazer »

Swizz Beatz Does Not Own Megaupload, Says Court Filing
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Ben Parr's Entrepreneurial …, Threat Level, SlashGear, BET.com, The Next Web and Rolling Stone

Reid Statement On Intellectual Property Bill … 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.
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Computerworld, PC World, Washington Post, Macworld, OpenCongress, Threat Level, Electronista, Policy Blog, Michael Geist Blog, Threat Level, @arrington, CNET and GigaOM, more at Mediagazer »
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Business Insider, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Ars Technica, PandoDaily, Reuters, NBC Bay Area, Kotaku, The Next Web and Destructoid


PIPA and SOPA votes shelved. Your move, web. — Update: After this story was published, the House Judiciary chairman and cosponsor 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).
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CNET, Reuters, ReadWriteWeb, DSLreports, The Firewall, paidContent, House Judiciary Committee, Ars Technica, Uncrunched and Pocket-lint, more at Mediagazer »


Dodd Calls for Hollywood and Silicon Valley to Meet
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digiphile, The Verge, Hillicon Valley, Hollywood Reporter, Digital Trends, Techdirt, MediaPost and @johnolilly

Father of the web backs SOPA protests
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Business Insider

U.S. website blackout draws praise in China
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Letter from China

Europe Says It Won't Adopt ‘Bad’ Digital Policy Like SOPA
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Tech Europe, PandoDaily, The Verge, Guardian, The Next Web and Inquirer

After Internet blackout, all GOP candidates agree SOPA sucks
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Alexander Howard, CNET, Mediaite and Neowin.net


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.
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CNET, 9to5Mac, PhoneArena, Softpedia News, Examiner, Wall Street Journal and PalmAddicts
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iBooks Author Is Not Going To Hurt Publishers. It Might Even Help Them
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Macworld, TeleRead, Softpedia News and GigaOM, more at Mediagazer »

Do we want textbooks to live in Apple's walled garden?
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LAPTOP Magazine, SiliconANGLE, Epicenter, CNET and TeleRead

The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA
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The Mobile Gadgeteer Blog, The Register, paidContent, PandoDaily, David Smith, iThinkDifferent, TUAW, The Ed Bott Report Blog, Daring Fireball, MacRumors, The Apple Core Blog, Matt Gemmell, Gizmodo, SiliconFilter, Hack Education, Learn to Duck, VentureBeat, The Network Garden, 9to5Mac, Business Insider, The Verge, ReadWriteWeb, MacStories, The Next Web, Techie Buzz, Mashable!, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, L.A. Times Tech Blog and @segphault, more at Mediagazer »

Kno CEO Osman Rashid To Apple: “Now We Will Fight On Who Has The Better Product”
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LAPTOP Magazine, PC World and Techland

A Brief History of Textbooks, or, Why Apple's ‘New Textbook Experience’ Is Actually Revolutionary
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CNET, AnandTech, The Toybox Blog, Epicenter and Snarkmarket


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 …
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VatorNews, SplatF, The Tech Trade, Gizmodo, paidContent, Marketing Land, PandoDaily, Softpedia News, Business Insider, Electronista, The Next Web and mediabistro.com


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+.
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The Next Web, Marketing Land, Business Insider, 9to5Google and Softpedia News, Thanks:@sidharthdassani

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 …
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Reuters, CNET, BGR, PC World, DailyTech, Macgasm, Ubergizmo, Android Phone Fans, The Verge, London Calling Blog, Electronista, Engadget, Softpedia News, Inquirer, iDownloadBlog.com, PalmAddicts, Redmond Pie, Fast Company and MobileBurn.com


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.
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BGR, The Register, Engadget, Communications …, Electronista and 9to5Mac


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 …

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% …
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Marketing Land, The Tech Trade, The Register, Telegraph, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, Techland, Internet Evolution, John Battelle's Search Blog, Vic Gundotra, New York Times, TechCrunch, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Softpedia News, Search Engine Roundtable, MediaNama, memeburn, eWeek, The Next Web, Business Insider, The Next Web, CNET, WinBeta, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Social Markets, Bloomberg, Inside Social Games, Telegraph, Forbes and VentureBeat, more at Mediagazer »


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.
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Fortune, News Stories, Wall Street Journal, Between the Lines Blog and Neowin.net


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 …
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itu.int, Phone Scoop and The Verge


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 …


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 …