Mediagazer: Megaupload Drops Lawsuit Against Universal Music Over Viral Video (Exclusive) (Eriq Gardner/Hollywood Reporter)

3:15 AM ET, January 22, 2012

Top News:

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

How false reports of Joe Paterno's death were spread and debunked — News spread quickly Saturday evening that former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had died. Except, he hadn't. — Here is an account of how it happened. — We have made it easy to comment on posts …

Discussion: @onwardstate, Eye On College Football, The Wrap, Citizen's Voice, CBSSports.com, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Huffington Post, @jayrosen_nyu, @devon2012, Inside, SBNation.com, @fromcarl and Deadspin

Mathew Ingram / @mathewi:

pretty cowardly of CBS Sports and HuffPo to only give credit to source of Paterno report after it was proven untrue: http://www.poynter.org/...

Scott Carroll / @scottyknoxville:

The managing editor of Onward State, Penn State student paper that initially reported Paterno died, has stepped down. http://www.facebook.com/...

Discussion: Poynter, Onward State and @breakingnews

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought — Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News …

Discussion: Fox News, Hillicon Valley, The Greenroom, @joshconstine, Forbes, @gaberivera, parislemon, @cshirky, @wllegal, @jonhenke, @beschizza, Public Knowledge, New York Times and Telegraph, more at Techmeme »

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Europe Says It Won't Adopt ‘Bad’ Digital Policy Like SOPA — Don't expect the European Commission to introduce its own version of America's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). — Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes, who, in a previous life as antitrust commissioner, fined Microsoft (NSDQ …

Discussion: Future of Journalism, GigaOM, @senatorreid, @senatorreid, Policy Blog, Senate Democrats, ZDNet, Hillicon Valley, Washington Post, Uncrunched, The Next Web, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Mashable!, The Verge, CNET, Guardian and TechCrunch

Dan Gillmor / Guardian:

The struggle against Sopa and Pipa is not over — Online protest against Sopa and Pipa has worked well but the corporate interests behind the copyright lobby won't let it rest — • See the Guardian's interactive explainer: understanding Sopa — Has Sopa, the draconian copyright …

Discussion: Mashable!, TeleRead, Gothamist, FlowingData and paidContent

Clay Shirky:
Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood

Discussion: O'Reilly Radar, Hillicon Valley, Future of Journalism, The Rumpus.net, MediaShift and Marco.org, more at Techmeme »

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Megaupload Drops Lawsuit Against Universal Music Over Viral Video (Exclusive) — Amid a criminal case that forced the shutdown of Megaupload, the company has dismissed UMG from a lawsuit over a video that showed many stars endorsing the site. But that doesn't mean the case is over.

Discussion: The Verge, Electronista, The Next Web and WebProNews

Somini Sengupta / Bits:

A Move to Investigate the Investigators in WikiLeaks Case — This much is known: In its hunt for information about three people it believes to be associated with the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks, the Justice Department has sought to extract details about them and their communications on Twitter.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and The Atlantic Wire, more at Techmeme »

Marc Fisher / Washington Post:

Polarized news market has altered the political process in South Carolina primary — We follow three South Carolina voters and profile their media consumption, matching up their habits against national survey data. Watch a video of their activity and take a quiz to see which shows …

Discussion: Future of Journalism and FishbowlDC

Erika Fry / CJR:
What I Saw at the South Carolina Debate

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser, Associated Press, B&C, The Politico, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel, msnbc.com and BuzzFeed

Tim Carman / Washington Post:

And that's why we test — The storyout of Chile was enough to make a publisher's blood turn colder than a liquid nitrogen milkshake. In late December, the country's Supreme Court ruled that the newspaper La Tercera had to shell out more than $160,000 to 13 victims who were burned while trying to fry churros in hot oil.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Conal Urquhart / Guardian:

Johann Hari leaves the Independent after plagiarism storm — Columnist will not return to newspaper after being accused of using material from other writers without giving them credit — Johann Hari, the journalist at the Independent who was suspended for plagiarism, has announced that he will not return to the newspaper.

Discussion: Poynter, BBC, Johann Hari, The Drum, The Huffington Post, FleetStreetBlues, @davidfolkenflik and Jon Slattery

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Has phone hacking changed attitudes at the top of News Corp? — Payouts to phone-hacking victims and new executive appointments show an attempt to move on — Rupert Murdoch was in London on Thursday in time to follow the coverage of the 37 News of the World phone-hacking settlements …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Telegraph and Guardian