Mediagazer: Studios win again in fight over user content: “safe harbors” not so safe, websites find (Jeff John Roberts/Gigaom)

3:10 PM ET, January 7, 2014

Top News:

John McDermott / Digiday:

Twitter Inches Closer to the Local Ad Market — Twitter has grand ambitions as an ad platform, and it appears poised to make a foray into the lucrative but fragmented world of local advertising. — Twitter recently rolled out a new map-based feature called Nearby to select users …

Discussion: @dkiesow and @digiday

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

New rules at Time Inc require stories about company to be approved by Chief Content Officer — Norm Pearlstine lays down the law — Norm Pearlstine has laid down some ground rules for Time Inc.'s editors in a bid to govern what type of material should pass through him for pre-publication approval.

Discussion: @mlcalderone, @felixsalmon, @antderosa, @edmundlee and Capital New York

Nicole Laporte / Fast Company:

Netflix: The Red Menace — Just when Hollywood thought it had Netflix figured out, that “red envelope” company flipped the script, creating a playbook for any business that aspires to upend an industry. It's about to do it again. — “It's the creatives, stupid.”

Discussion: @fastcompany, @felixsalmon and @noahr

Maggie McGrath / Forbes:
Amazon And Hulu Could Slow Netflix Growth In 2014, Morgan Stanley Says

Discussion: Deadline.com, Variety, TheStreet.com, USA Today, Fox Business and MoneyBeat

Jeremy Barr / Poynter:

FAA says any commercial use of drones including journalism is not allowed yet — FAA on drone recordings by journalists: ‘There is no gray area’ — Last Wednesday, The (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review published a minute-long, aerial video of a local event.

Discussion: Capital New York, @ldignan, @fergle, @elisewho, @fredericl, @mattwaite, @yelvington, @lt_vt, @emilybell, @tvnewslab and Online NewsHour

Mike Isaac / Re/code:

Vine Co-Founder Steps Down From Lead Role at Company — Dom Hofmann, co-founder of the social video-sharing service Vine, has stepped down from his lead general manager role at the company, according to three sources close to the situation. — Hofmann, who has led the company since …

Discussion: @mikeisaac, The Verge and @kenli729

Nancy A. Youssef / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Visit with jailed Al Jazeera correspondent finds him healthy, haggard — CAIRO — Donning a long overcoat to fend off the winter chill, the prison official led the way down some stairs, through an underground parking garage, then back up a short set of steps to the goal: a dingy …

Discussion: Toronto Star, @reem_abdellatif, @jeremyscahill, @patrickkingsley, @tomlasseter, @claytonswisher and @tamerelg

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

TiVo Moves Storage Of TV Shows Into The Cloud With New Network DVR Service — DVR manufacturer TiVo has spent most of the last 15 years building hardware that would allow consumers to record their favorite TV shows and watch them later. Now the company is working toward building products …

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Multichannel.com, IP&TV News, Variety, The Next Web, Engadget and Gizmodo

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Comcast Grows Subscribers For First Time in 26 Quarters — CEO Brian Roberts tells Wall Street analysts that the return to growth after six years of losses is owed to more innovative TV products and calls Xfinity a “game-changer.” — After 26 quarters of losing video customers, Comcast …

Discussion: Forbes, Variety, @brianstelter and CNBC

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

Bill Gannon joins First Look Media: My Q & A with him about intelligent aggregation in news — Today Pierre Omidyar announced a key hire: recently Bill was editor of Entertainment Weekly, before that boss of the Yahoo home page. — This is from the official press release:

Discussion: @niemanlab, @mathewi and @jayrosen_nyu

Sam Kirkland / Poynter:

HuffPost policy banishes trolls — and drives away some frequent commenters — When The Huffington Post announced that all commenters would be required starting Dec. 10 to link their profiles to Facebook and have their real names displayed when commenting, the reaction was fierce.

Discussion: @niemanlab

Stephen Shankland / CNET:

Vimeo speeds its online videos, goes HTML5 by default — Vimeo has sped up its video-streaming technology and made the shift from Flash-powered video to HTML5 by default, the company said Tuesday. — The new player software improves performance, social links, and post-production capabilities …

Discussion: VentureBeat, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Softpedia News, PC Magazine, The Next Web, Gizmodo, The Drum and Pocket-lint

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

When a (Partial) Tweet Becomes an Ad, What Are the Rules? — The media world gets weirder every day, but this moment still stands out as something of a stunner - the kind of thing that merits a place on the eternal timeline of “How the Internet Flipped the Media World on Its Head.” — Picture it:

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

Studios win again in fight over user content: “safe harbors” not so safe, websites find — The long-running court battles between content owners and websites like YouTube often resembles the trench warfare of World War I: two sides engage in years of fighting at incalculable cost, and barely gain any ground.

Kwame Opam / The Verge:

Samsung announces major 4K streaming partnership with Amazon, Netflix, and others — In addition to inking a deal with Technicolor's M-GO streaming service, Samsung today announced a major partnership with Netflix, Amazon, Comcast, and DirecTV to provide 4K streaming to consumers via their latest UHD TVs.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable