Mediagazer: Leaders In House And Senate Postpone Anti-Piracy Efforts (Jeff Roberts/paidContent)

4:00 PM ET, January 20, 2012

Top News:

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: VentureBeat, Betabeat, Telegraph, Gawker, PC Magazine, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, CNET, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, New York Times, Federal Bureau …, The Lede, Digits, Guardian, Media News, TeleRead and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

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 …

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.

more at Techmeme »

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Leaders In House And Senate Postpone Anti-Piracy Efforts — The push for controversial legislation known as SOPA and PIPA appears to have unraveled completely after leaders in both the House and Senate put the bills on ice. — In a press release this morning, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tx) …

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: AllThingsD, Marco.org, CNET, Hillicon Valley, Los Angeles Times, The Verge, Techdirt and Deadline.com, more at Techmeme »

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: SplatF, WebProNews, ZDNet, mediabistro.com, PC Magazine, Softpedia News, Fortune, VatorNews, paidContent, The Next Web, The Tech Trade, Electronista, Mashable!, Gizmodo and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

BuzzFeed Makes Another Splashy Hire, This One From Rolling Stone — BuzzFeed, the social Web site that made a splash last month by hiring the blogger Ben Smith away from Politico, will signal its expansion plans on Friday by announcing that it has hired Doree Shafrir of Rolling Stone to oversee culture coverage.

Discussion: The New York Observer and FishbowlNY

Telegraph:

News International faces FBI phone hacking probe — Rupert Murdoch's is facing an FBI investigation into phone hacking in America after News International admitted intercepting voicemails of Jude Law, the actor, while it is thought he was in the United States. — Jude Law

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Adweek, Deadline.com, The Huffington Post and Bloomberg

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Daily Mail publisher loses challenge to Leveson inquiry anonymity ruling

Discussion: Editor's Blog, Press Gazette and Associated Press

Guardian:
How News Group hid phone-hacking scandal

Discussion: Press Gazette, CJR and Neville Thurlbeck

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Raju Narisetti leaving Washington Post to return to WSJ — After three years at The Washington Post, managing editor Raju Narisetti is returning to The Wall Street Journal as managing editor of the Journal's Digital Network. Narisetti worked at the Journal for 13 years before stints at Mint and the Post …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, paidContent, Dow Jones, FishbowlDC and Media Decoder

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Iran's Press TV loses UK licence — Ofcom revokes English-language channel's licence for breaching the Communications Act — Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster's English-language outlet, has been forced off the air in the UK after Ofcom revoked its licence for breaching the Communications Act.

Discussion: Press Gazette and Reuters

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:

Politico:

CNN's John King puts himself on firing line — CHARLESTON, S.C. — Newt Gingrich's heated exchange with moderator John King at Thursday's CNN debate may help determine the fate of Gingrich's campaign for president and could also be a defining moment for King, whose image as a serious reporter …

Discussion: Poynter, Media Decoder, Poynter, New York Times, TVNewser, Washington Times, Online NewsHour, WLTX-TV, The Daily Beast, The Caucus, Inside Cable News and Erik Wemple

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

Editor overhears councilwoman's phone conversation, tweets about it — While on a train Thursday, Bob Salladay, a senior editor at California Watch and the Center for Investigative Reporting, realized he was sitting near Santa Ana City Council member Michele Martinez.

Discussion: Total Buzz, Navel Gazing and The Liberal OC