Mediagazer: Universal: Artists didn't consent to Megaupload video (Janko Roettgers/GigaOM)

12:45 PM ET, December 13, 2011

Top News:

Wikipedia Mulls Total Blackout to Oppose SOPA — Later this week, the Senate's House Judiciary Committee will vote on the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA). — Supporters of the bill say it's needed to safeguard the interests of rightsholders who claim their businesses are threatened by online piracy.

Discussion: CNET News, Free Press, Techdirt, Softpedia News, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Gawker, VentureBeat, The Huffington Post, The Register and Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

TorrentFreak:

Busted: BitTorrent Pirates at Sony, Universal and Fox — A few days ago we wrote about a new website that exposes what people behind an IP-address have downloaded on BitTorrent. The Russian-based founders of the site developed the service so people can show their friends how public …

Discussion: VentureBeat, ZDNet, Techdirt, Boing Boing and Lifehacker, more at Techmeme »

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Lamar Smith Proposes New Version Of SOPA, With Just A Few Changes — In preparation for his attempt to rush SOPA through Congress, Rep. Lamar Smith has put forth an updated version of the bill (pdf link and embedded below) as a “manager's amendment,” which will be used for the markup, to be held on Thursday.

more at Techmeme »

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:

Don't Bother Emailing James Murdoch on the Weekend — Murdoch sent a letter to Parliament on Monday that he just discovered an email from News of the World editor Colin Myler and News International lawyer Tom Crone sounding pretty concerned about a phone hacking case well before he had previously said he was aware of the allegations.

James Robinson / Guardian:

Phone hacking: lawyer knew ‘rogue reporter’ defence was untrue in 2008 — Farrer & Co partner Julian Pike tells Leveson inquiry he knew the ‘rogue reporter’ defence was wrong three years ago — A lawyer who advised former News of the World owner News International until two months ago …

The Huffington Post:
Dowler Family Insist Police Told Them NotW Journalists Deleted Milly's Voicemails

Discussion: Guardian

Sam Marsden / The Independent: Leveson Inquiry: News International ‘tried to influence prosecution’ of jailed royal editor

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

BBC World News to Be Available Through Comcast — The BBC will announce on Tuesday a first-of-its-kind deal for Comcast to carry the BBC World News channel, opening the door to wider distribution for the channel within the United States. — The carriage agreements come nearly a year …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel, Inside Cable News and TVNewser

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Universal: Artists didn't consent to Megaupload video — The brouhaha around Megaupload's viral music video continues this week, with Universal Music (UMG) now claiming that several of its artists didn't consent to being used in the video. Megaupload is disputing these claims in a lawsuit it filed in federal court today.

Discussion: Techdirt, TeleRead, Hollywood Reporter, Boing Boing, Plagiarism Today and Rolling Stone

Jolie O'Dell / VentureBeat:
Megaupload is suing Universal for unjustly yanking its commercial off YouTube

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, TorrentFreak, Guardian, ReadWriteWeb and Boing Boing

Alessandra Stanley / ArtsBeat:

The TV Watch: Chelsea Clinton Finally Embraces Her Celebrity — Chelsea Clinton gave a perfectly honed and utterly unsatisfying explanation on Monday for why she made her debut as a special correspondent on NBC's magazine show, “Rock Center with Brian Williams.”

Discussion: Washington Post, The Wrap, Media Decoder, rbr.com and newsfeed.time.com, more at Techmeme »

The Daily Record:

Glenn Mulcaire's breach of contract case against News International begins — PRIVATE investigator Glenn Mulcaire's arrangement with News Group Newspapers to pay his legal fees was not unusual, a judge heard today. — Mulcaire, who was jailed for six months in 2007 for intercepting messages …

Josh Halliday / Guardian: NoW's Ian Edmondson asked Glenn Mulcaire to hack phones, court is told

Dennis Romero / LA Weekly:

Occupy LA: LAPD Investigates Caught-on-Video Arrest of Journalist Calvin Milam — Updated at the bottom: The LAPD has opened an investigation into this case, but a commander disputes Mark Geragos' take on what happened to his client that night. — The arrest of a journalist …

Discussion: The City Maven and LA Observed

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
In video, confrontation between a ‘Times’ photographer and the NYPD at Occupy Wall Street protest downtown

Discussion: Forbes, The Huffington Post, Poynter, Runnin' Scared, The New York Observer and New York Magazine

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Judge allows journalists to tweet, live-blog from Sandusky preliminary hearing — Senior Judge John M. Cleland has loosened his rules for Tuesday's preliminary hearing for Jerry Sandusky. The amendment states that portions of the order “are amended to permit reporters credentialed under …

Discussion: PennLive.com and The Penn Stater Magazine

Adam Klasfeld / Courthouse News Service:

Gawker Brought Into New Yorker Fracas — MANHATTAN (CN) - A Canadian art authenticator has cast a wider net in his defamation lawsuit against The New Yorker, hoping to ream Gawker and about a half-dozen other media outlets and websites that publicized the magazine's original coverage.

Discussion: Gallerist NY and paidContent

Stacy St. Clair / Chicago Tribune:

Judge orders Tribune to turn over notes about Cellini juror — A federal judge ordered a Chicago Tribune reporter on Monday to turn over notes and other related documents concerning a juror who apparently concealed her criminal record in the William Cellini trial, a directive the newspaper called …

Discussion: Change of Subject

Daniel Miller / Hollywood Reporter:

L.A. Shooting: Hollywood Reporter Editor Shot, Recalls Incident … THR.com photo editor Chris Godley was shot by a gunman in Hollywood on Friday morning, but was only grazed by a bullet and not seriously injured in an incident that was captured on video by witnesses and widely circulated on the Internet.

Discussion: LAist, L.A. NOW and LA Observed

Douglas Martin / New York Times:

Oscar Griffin Jr., 78, Pulitzer Prize Winner Who Brought Down Scheming Texas Tycoon, Dies — Judge Roy Bean, the 19th-century Texas justice of the peace and saloonkeeper, called himself “the law west of the Pecos.” Not until the 1960s was Judge Bean's legend challenged — by Billy Sol Estes.

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Ailes on Ailes: Fox News Chief Is Writing an Autobiography — Roger Ailes. — Several GOP candidates have treated this primary season as a book tour, just as much as a presidential campaign. Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Sarah Palin have all hustled around the country selling books …

Discussion: The Wrap, The New York Observer, The Huffington Post and Deadline.com