Mediagazer: Warner Bros Fights Looming Exposé of Anti-piracy Secrets (Ernesto/TorrentFreak)

7:20 AM ET, March 21, 2014

Top News:

Reed Hastings / Netflix US & Canada Blog:

Internet Tolls And The Case For Strong Net Neutrality — The Internet is improving lives everywhere - democratizing access to ideas, services and goods. To ensure the Internet remains humanity's most important platform for progress, net neutrality must be defended and strengthened.

Discussion: New York Times, NPR, Forbes, @jayadelson, @richbtig, TIME, The Switch, VentureBeat, @benadida, CNET, BetaNews, @pkafka, ZDNet, @notpatrick, Deadline.com, TheHill, Mashable, multichannel.com/rss, Business Insider, AdAge, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Variety, The Verge, The Next Web, @demandprogress, SlashGear, @firstadopter, @haroldfeld, Engadget and TechCrunch

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Netflix Says It Really Didn't Want to Cut That Traffic Deal With Comcast — Remember last month, when Netflix and Comcast signed a deal to guarantee fast delivery of the video service's streams to the cable company's customers? — That's exactly the kind of deal Netflix shouldn't have to sign, says Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

Discussion: The Wrap, Gigaom, @pkafka, @pkafka and @rsingel

Variety:

‘This American Life’ Loses Public Radio Distributor — After 17 years, Public Radio International announced today that it will end distribution of one of its most popular shows, “This American Life.” — The Ira Glass-hosted program, which has been distributed by PRI since 1997 …

Discussion: Current.org, The Bold Italic, TwinCities.com, The Wire, @mhess4, @inajaffenpr, @thisamerlife, @tomdreisbach, @digiphile, Mashable and AllAccess.com

Chris Taylor / Mashable:

Twitter Blocked in Turkey as Prime Minister Pledges to ‘Eradicate’ It — What's This? — There's electioneering, and then there's what Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan said Thursday on the campaign trail. — “We will eradicate Twitter,” Erdoan told a rally in Bursa in the west of the country.

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Warner Bros Fights Looming Exposé of Anti-piracy Secrets — To deal with the ongoing threat of online piracy, major Hollywood studios have entire divisions dedicated to tracking down copyright infringers. Exactly what goes on behind the scenes is a mystery, but if the Electronic Frontier Foundation …

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Sinclair Proposes To Modify Allbritton Deal to Secure FCC Approval — Changes follow commission signaling it would take hard look at deals with sharing and financial ties — Sinclair says it will restructure its Allbritton deal to make it more palatable to the FCC, which is looking closely …

Discussion: Adweek

Marc Graser / Variety:

Fox, Samsung to Develop System to Deliver Ultra HD Content Through Smart TVs — Twentieth Century Fox and Samsung Electronics announced a partnership Thursday in which both companies will work together to create a secure way to deliver Ultra HD movies and TV shows through smart TVs.

Discussion: Gigaom, Mashable, Deadline.com and CNET

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Medium launches iPhone app for reading stories on the go — After a short delay, Medium released its iPhone app today with a focus on reading and recommending stories. “Every week, thousands of people come to Medium to write,” company founder Ev Williams said in a post on the site. “That's the hard part.

Discussion: Gigaom, Medium, AppleInsider, The Next Web, Engadget and TechCrunch

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

TV broadcasters propose compromise to FCC on a cap for joint operating agreements — NAB Offers 30% Solution — Pitches compromise JSA proposal — The National Association of Broadcasters has pitched FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn on a compromise to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler's planned March 31 vote …

Discussion: @ajitpaifcc, Variety, Radio & Television …, TVNewsCheck.com, AllAccess.com, Broadcasting & Cable, Deadline.com and Adweek

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Liberty Overtakes Disney as Most Profitable Media Conglomerate — SNL Kagan says Liberty's fortunes soared in 2013 due to a savvy investment in SiriusXM Radio. — With a $142 billion market capitalization, Wall Street has determined that the Walt Disney Co. is the most valuable traditional media conglomerate on the planet.

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What's next for the team behind Syria Deeply? Arctic Deeply — Syria isn't the only news topic worth going into Deeply. — Since Syria Deeply, a news site solely focused on covering the crisis there, went live in late 2012, Lara Setrakian hasn't hid the fact that she wants …

Tara Conlan / Guardian:

Virgin Media talking to Amazon about taking its video-on-demand service — Tom Mockridge confirms cable network's interest in Prime Instant Video, which recently bought third series of Ripper Street — Virgin Media has held talks with Amazon about putting its video-on-demand service Prime Instant Video …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter and Broadband TV News

Vindu Goel / New York Times:

Twitter's new video hosting platform lets mobile users play clips with a single tap — Twitter Rolls Out Easier, Faster Video Playback — Over the past year, Twitter has worked closely with television networks and other professional video creators to upload and promote thousands …

Discussion: Variety, The Next Web, ReadWrite, Marketing Pilgrim, @twitterads, Engadget and @vivian

Dennis Robaugh / Joliet Patch News:

Media Organizations Stand with Patch in Confidential Source Case — Patch editor faces $300-a-day fines and jail time. Thirty-nine news organizations filed an amicus brief to the appellate court supporting Patch's case. — Patch editor Joseph Hosey, speaking to the Illinois College Press …

Discussion: Poynter and @seanrobinsontnt

David Lieberman / Deadline.com:

Discovery Founder John Hendricks Will Retire In May — This is a milestone for the company, and the cable industry. John Hendricks is one of the business' most influential programming pioneers, and possibly the most authentic and humble media mogul I ever met.

Discussion: Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Variety and The Wrap

Vidhi Choudhary / LiveMint:

Quartz India launches in June in collaboration with Scroll.in as other media groups eye market — Online news: Foreign media firms make beeline for India — New Delhi: Quartz, the US-based Atlantic Media's popular online business news brand, is entering India amid a sharpening battle for online eyeballs among foreign media brands.

Discussion: @nixxin, @miamabanta, @kevinjdelaney, @mitrakalita, @rohanv, Talking Biz News, @kianganz and Capital New York

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Yahoo's Tumblr First TV Ad Deal Is with Viacom — Tumblr, the blogging site Yahoo bought last year for $1.1 billion, has secured an advertising deal with Viacom, which plans to pitch cobranded campaigns on the site to marketers tied to TV programming for networks including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.

Discussion: MediaPost, MediaPost, Wall Street Journal, CNET, VentureBeat and The Next Web

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

MP3Tunes Founder Michael Robertson Found Liable for Copyright Infringement — A jury finds that the once-popular website willfully blinded itself to thousands of songs being stolen. — On Wednesday, a jury in a New York federal courtroom found MP3Tunes founder Michael Robertson liable …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Ars Technica, Plagiarism Today, Techdirt and Softpedia News

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

Screenburn raises $500k to help sell films and music on Facebook — British startup has already worked with Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones on video-on-demand films — Paul McCartney is one of the musicians to have worked with Screenburn. — British technology startup Screenburn …

Discussion: hypebot, AllFacebook and ReadWrite

Jason Miller / Federal News Radio:

Agency FOIA officers discontent with House reform bill — Krista Boyd, the counsel for the minority on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said one of the major changes to the FOIA Act over the last year came from last year's American University Washington College of Law event.

Discussion: Freedom of the Press …

J-Source:

Memo: Editor-in-chief Steve Meurice leaves National Post — National Post editor Steve Meurice is leaving the company, effective today. With his departure, we have lost a terrific editor, friend and colleague. — In his 17 years here, Steve has provided superior editorial leadership …

Discussion: @thehartley, @evalois and @ivisonj

Stephen Gandel / Fortune:

At financial news sites, stock promoters make inroads — Several finance websites — including Forbes.com and Seeking Alpha — have published articles by guest contributors who were allegedly paid to promote the stocks they were writing about, raising ethical concerns.