Mediagazer: Pirate Bay Uploads Surge 50% in a Year, Despite Anti-Piracy Efforts (Ernesto/TorrentFreak)

8:45 AM ET, January 1, 2014

Top News:

Defamation Act comes into force today with ‘serious harm’ now needed for claims to succeed — The long-awaited Defamation Act 2013 comes into force today bring sweeping changing to the law of libel. — The act introduces a “new serious harm threshold” designed to help people understand …

Discussion: BBC, Guardian, Financial Times, OUPblog, Times Higher Education and Boing Boing

Capital:

Mossberg and Swisher relaunch as Re/Code — It's styled as and in a message to the anxiously awaiting crowds who wanted to see what Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher did with AllThingsD when they migrated the franchise from The Wall Street Journal to NBC, they tell us: “While we think tech news is important …

Discussion: Recode, @allthingsd, @karaswisher, @waltmossberg, @joshelman, @recode, @mikeisaac, @hunterwalk, @waltmossberg, @kenli729, @karaswisher, @karaswisher and @hunterwalk

AllThingsD:

Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher reflect on AllThingsD, tease new company launching January 2 — You Say Goodbye and We Say Hello — This is the last day of the All Things Digital site, which began life in April of 2007 as a year-round extension of the D conference we launched in 2003.

Discussion: @karaswisher, @ryan, @chernowa, @jsnell, @startupljackson, @allthingsd, @jeffjohnroberts, @rosenthal, @waltmossberg, @engadget, @delrey, @scottcowley, @caseynewton and @benparr

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Could the N.Y. Times have saved ‘60 Minutes’? — The New York Times was partly responsible for taking down “60 Minutes” in November after its botched Benghazi segment, but it also could have saved the program had the Times run its exhaustive new report on the attacks in Benghazi when it was first ready this summer.

Discussion: The Week, Talking Points Memo and Mother Jones

Samer Al-Atrush / Agence France Presse:

Egypt holds Jazeera crew on ‘terror’ accusations — Cairo (AFP) - Egypt has accused detained journalists from the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera television network of belonging to a “terrorist” group, saying they had ties with the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood, the prosecution said Tuesday.

Discussion: New York Times, @sameralatrush, @sameralatrush, @sameralatrush, Sydney Morning Herald and BBC

Hugh Miles / BBC:
Why is Egypt's government targeting Al-Jazeera?

Discussion: @mlcalderone, @ambassadorpower and BuzzFeed

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

Rethinking TV news, Part I: What's broken, what's possible — Most TV news sucks. But I don't want to dwell on that. — I'd like to see TV news be reinvented, yet I'm astounded so little innovation is occurring in the medium. That could be because TV news is still in better financial shape than print.

Patrick Brzeski / Hollywood Reporter:

Chinese Search Giant Baidu Fined for Copyright Infringement — The crackdown comes as China tries to rid itself of the stigma of rampant piracy and establish a healthy Internet video market. — China's largest search engine, Baidu Inc., and Shenzhen-based technology firm QVOD …

Discussion: Investors.com and Zacks Investment Research

Susan Stellin / New York Times:

District Judge Upholds Government's Right to Search Electronics at Border — The government's right to search travelers' electronic devices at the border was upheld in a ruling released by a federal judge on Tuesday, which dismissed a lawsuit challenging this policy.

Discussion: Associated Press, Engadget, @drrimmer, @nppalawyer, @donaldrwinslow, The Huffington Post, RT, NPPA, Techdirt and Wired

Paul Vitello / New York Times:

John Dominis, a Star Life Magazine Photographer, Dies at 92 — John Dominis, a Life magazine photographer who was known for capturing celebrities, wild animals and presidents at their unguarded best, and who was caught off guard himself while taking his most famous picture …

Discussion: @ptypk, @hofrench, @joemcnallyphoto, LA Observed and Gothamist

Andrew Longstreth / Reuters:

Justice Department defends Apple monitor in e-books case — (Reuters) - A bitter battle between Apple Inc and a lawyer appointed to monitor its compliance with a court antitrust ruling escalated on Monday, as the U.S. government and the monitor both hit back at Apple.

Discussion: TheHill, MacRumors and Wall Street Journal

Jonathan Krim / Wall Street Journal:

Introducing WSJD — Welcome to WSJD, The Wall Street Journal's new home for technology news, analysis, commentary, daily buzz and consumer-product reviews. — This new section is the latest example of our expansion of technology coverage around the world, with a growing team …

Discussion: @wsjd, @nateog, @raju, @allthingsd, @edwardroussel, @joannastern and Mashable

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Pirate Bay Uploads Surge 50% in a Year, Despite Anti-Piracy Efforts — 2013 has been an eventful year for The Pirate Bay, to say the least. — The site celebrated its tenth anniversary, but with pressure from copyright holders mounting, it had to switch domain names no less than six times.

Discussion: technology.canoe.ca, theWHIR.com, Gizmodo, carbonated.tv, Ubergizmo, @apblake, Boing Boing, RT, Variety, SlashGear, Plagiarism Today and Gigaom

Stuart Jeffries / Guardian:

Netflix's Ted Sarandos: the ‘evil genius’ behind a TV revolution — Allowing subscribers to binge on TV series has made Netflix into a global brand. But company boss Ted Sarandos isn't stopping there: by moving into making shows, he wants to change what we watch as well as how we watch it

Discussion: @moseskemibaro and @garethfox