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5:05 AM ET, January 21, 2012

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Y Combinator:
RFS 9: Kill Hollywood  —  Hollywood appears to have peaked.  If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline.  But this is not an ordinary industry.  The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected …
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Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:
Killing Hollywood Will Require Learning Hollywood's Game  —  Looking around the Web today, there's been a mixture of we-killed-SOPA high-fiving and crestfallen realism that the bill isn't really dead.  As long as there are movie studios and lobbyists, it'll just pop up in another form like some horrible game of whack-a-mole.
Nick Bilton / Bits:
Investment Firm Y Combinator Goes on Offensive Against Hollywood  —  After the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act were shelved on Friday, some Web sites and venture capitalists went on the offensive against the people and companies behind the controversial piracy bills.
Discussion: VatorNews, VentureBeat and PC Magazine
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Explainer: How can the US seize a “Hong Kong site” like Megaupload?  —  The Megaupload takedown, and the arrest of its key employees, might seem to vindicate late 1990s worries about the Internet and jurisdiction.  Does putting a site on the 'Net, though it might be hosted anywhere in the world …
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Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Follow the traffic: What MegaUpload's downfall did to the web  —  MegaUpload, the file-sharing community, has had its physical offices raided by the FBI and its site shut down (although it may be back up) because the U.S. government says it has violated copyright.
Jeremy Pelofsky / Reuters:
Megaupload site wants assets back, to fight charges  —  (Reuters) - The Internet website Megaupload.com, shut down by authorities over allegations that it illegally peddled copyrighted material, is trying to recover its servers and get back online, a lawyer for the company said on Friday.
Marco Arment / Marco.org:
The next SOPA  —  Every few years, the MPAA's lobbying power, rhetoric, and immense campaign contributions succeed in purchasing a bill in Congress to advance their agenda in a way that's hostile to the technology industry and consumers.  —  Their bills have had mixed success and usually die …
RELATED:
Paul Kane / Washington Post:
SOPA, PIPA votes to be delayed in House and Senate
Dan Gillmor / Guardian:
The struggle against Sopa and Pipa is not over
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Google to Shut Down Picnik, Social Graph API and Urchin, Open-Sourcing Sky Map  —  Google's spring cleaning campaign continues, the the company just announced the closure of a number of products, including the popular Picnik online photo editor which, until recently, was integrated into Yahoo's Flickr, for example.
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Steven Sinofsky / MSDN Blogs:
Engineering Windows 8 for mobile networks … People want similar mobility on their PCs as they get on their smartphones.  —  It is unlikely that your end goal is just to get connected to the Internet.  Instead, connecting to the Internet is a step (or a hurdle) towards what you really want to do …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
On the Proprietary Nature of the iBooks Author File Format  —  Daniel Glazman, co-chairman of the W3C CSS Working Group, has a detailed technical analysis of the iBooks Author file format: … He thinks these nonstandard extensions are a strategic mistake on Apple's part:
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Bing's New Ad Campaign: Bing Is For #Doing  —  Bing is set to launch a new ad campaign this weekend that includes a subtle change from its previous messaging.  —  Rather than promoting the idea of making decisions, the new campaign is about people doing interesting things and uses the slogan, Bing is for #Doing.
Daniel Frankel / paidContent:
Longtime Netflix Marketing Chief Leslie Kilgore Bumped To The Board  —  In a move that seems designed to shore up confidence in its communications skills following the Qwikster and price-hike debacle, longtime Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) marketing chief Leslie Kilgore is moving to the board.
Rebecca J. Rosen / The Atlantic Online:
Microsoft Calls for Gay Marriage in Washington State  —  The company argues that it's hard to hire the best people in the world when the state where it's based discriminates against them.  —  In a week of tech industry protests about censorship, one company — Microsoft …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Publisher Terry McGraw on Steve Jobs and Digital Textbooks: “This Was His Vision”  —  After Apple's big education presentation yesterday, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw chatted with a gaggle of reporters, and explained things like the logic behind $15 digital textbooks.
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
Foxconn Responds To CEO's “Employees Are Animals” Comment  —  Foxconn responded to yesterday's kerfuffle about the CEO of Foxconn, Terry Gou, commenting that he cared for “a million animals” - namely his employees.  They said it was an off-the-cuff remark, similar to saying that managing is like …
Discussion: Business Insider and PandoDaily
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Groupon Buys Social Shopping Platform Mertado To Bolster Groupon Goods  —  We've been hearing rumbles about Groupon taking its Groupon Goods initiative more seriously, including rumors that it was talking with various eCommerce companies about partnering up.
Discussion: AllThingsD, CNET and silicontap.com
Kori Schulman / White House.gov Blog:
The White House Joins Google+  —  Starting today, we're excited to announce that you can follow the White House on Google+.  On day one, President Obama made clear that this Administration is committed to public engagement and participation.  That's why we launched the We the People petitioning tool …
 
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 More Items: 
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Home Depot Acquires Home Services Marketplace Redbeacon
Discussion: Redbeacon, PR Newswire and GigaOM
Tanzina Vega / New York Times:
For Online Privacy, Click Here
Matthew Yglesias / Slate:
5 Lessons From The SOPA/PIPA Fight
Nitasha Tiku / Betabeat:
Layoffs Underway at Gilt Groupe Right Now: ‘General Atmosphere Is Terrifying’
Danielle Kucera / Bloomberg:
PayPal Will Expand In-Store Payments
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
First Look: Backplane, The Lady Gaga-Backed Community Platform With All-Star Investors (Invites)
Discussion: IntoMobile, The Verge and PC Magazine
 Earlier Items: 
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Zynga Confirms It Is Seeking Partners for Online Gambling Initiatives
Adrianne Jeffries / Betabeat:
Union Square Ventures Leading Series B in Iowa-Based Dwolla for About $10 M.
Ben Drawbaugh / Engadget:
TiVo Premiere updates rolling out to the masses
Discussion: SlashGear and Electronista
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
New Google Accounts Require Gmail and Google+
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
The Great and Powerful Reddit