Mediagazer: ESPN Hosts Investors To Dispel Concerns About Cord Cutting And Competition (David Lieberman/Deadline.com)

8:20 PM ET, April 17, 2014

Top News:

Record Labels Sue Pandora Over Pre-1972 Recordings — The popular streaming service is hit with a complaint in New York court with potentially big consequences. — The major record labels are now suing Pandora for exploiting sound recordings made prior to February 15, 1972.

Discussion: New York Times and Reuters

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Aereo Launches ProtectMyAntenna.org To Explain Its Position Vs. Broadcasters — Aereo is about to present its case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but first it wants to present its case to you. Today, the startup launched ProtectMyAntenna.org, a website designed to inform its users about Aereo's tech …

Barry Diller / Wall Street Journal:
Broadcasters Don't Own the Airwaves

Discussion: The Huffington Post, TVNewser, VideoNuze Analysis, Deadline.com, Los Angeles Times, Business Insider, The New York Observer, multichannel.com, Broadcasting & Cable, Gigaom, Bloomberg and @sullduggery

Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court's Alito ends recusal in Aereo TV case

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Hollywood Reporter, NationalJournal.com and TechCrunch

Chantal Tode / Mobile Marketer:

Condé Nast's Epicurious is first media brand to leverage beacons in-store — Users of the Epicurious application from Condé Nast will soon be able to receive in-store push notifications, with the media brand claiming to be the first to leverage beacon technology to enhance the shopping experience.

Discussion: brand-e, Mobile Marketer, SYS-CON MEDIA and 9to5Mac

Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Condé Nast dives deep into native ads

Discussion: @cotton

Jennifer Faull / The Drum:

Nearly 20% of YouTube users now pay less attention to TV, finds Google study — YouTube is having a measurable impact on TV consumption, with nearly one fifth (19 per cent) of YouTube users saying they pay less attention to TV and 17 per cent stating that they watch TV less overall.

Casey Hynes / Asian Correspondent:

Journalists in Thai Navy defamation case ‘disappointed’ in Reuters' response — Two Phuketwan journalists were charged today with defaming the Thai Navy, and face seven years in prison and a $3,000 fine if convicted. A Thai Navy captain brought charges against Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian …

Lindsay Murdoch / Sydney Morning Herald:
Australian journalist Alan Morison spends time in Thai prison in fight for media freedom

Discussion: Reuters, Phuket Wan, Voice of America, ABC Radio Australia, Committee to Protect …, ABC Radio Australia, CNN, Phuket Wan, Sky News Australia, Phuket Wan and Guardian

Sandra Oshiro / Poynter:

Media organizations challenge order to take down anti-Muslim video — Major news organizations have filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Google and YouTube in their effort to overturn a takedown order for an anti-Muslim video that inflamed Islamic communities worldwide.

Discussion: Reporter's Committee … and Ars Technica

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Michael Wolff's column for the Guardian discontinued — Michael Wolff and The Guardian have parted ways. — Capital has learned that Wolff is no longer contracted to file a weekly column for the British broadsheet's American digital edition, Guardian U.S., for which he began writing a little over two years ago.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @alexckaufman, @jeffjohnroberts and Poynter

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Appeals court says blogs are not only media, they're an important source of news and commentary — It would be nice if the debate over whether bloggers are journalists could be put to rest, more than a decade after it first began, and especially after bloggers like Glenn Greenwald …

Discussion: The Legal Satyricon, @benkepes, Kirk LaPointe's …, @dsearls and Techdirt

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Video news snacks of 15 and 30 seconds lack depth but are smart experiments from NBCU, MSNBC — #30SecondstoKnow, ‘15 Seconds to Fame’ video clips are rapid and vapid, but not without value — #30SecondstoKnow, ‘15 Seconds to Fame’ video clips are rapid and vapid, but not without value

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Spotify Starts Shutting Down Its Massive P2P Network — When Spotify launched its first beta in the fall of 2008, we branded it “an alternative to music piracy.” — With the option to stream millions of tracks supported by an occasional ad, or free of ads for a small subscription fee …

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, TechCrunch, SlashGear, Engadget, Gigaom and hypebot

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Denver Post strengthens sponsored content designation on energy section — Following articles that said a Denver Post-sponsored energy section wasn't marked clearly enough, Post President and CEO Mac Tully told Poynter in an email the paper decided to “strengthen the sponsored content designation …

Discussion: Center for Western Priorities, ThinkProgress, Wonkette, @bj_bobbijo, @wglabe and @markloundy

Bloomberg:

Netflix reportedly in talks with Vodafone to stream movies and tv to telecom subscribers — Vodafone Said to Be in Talks With Netflix for Content — Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), the world's second-largest mobile carrier, is in talks with Netflix Inc. (NFLX) to offer subscribers access …

Discussion: Telegraph, @kerushton, Variety and @zseward

Todd Spangler / Variety:

A&E, History Launch Live TV Streaming on Web, Apple Mobile Devices — Episodes of A&E's “Storage Wars” or “Bates Motel” (pictured, above) and History's “Vikings” and “Swamp People” are now available to watch live online and mobile devices — for most pay-TV subscribers, anyway.