Jeff reports on how copyright, patents, anti-trust and other legal issues shape the digital economy. He also reports on the business and strategies of news companies. Jeff previously worked for Reuters in New York and Paris, and practiced intellectual property and media law. He writes for GigaOM and paidContent from the GigaOM East office in Manhattan's Flatiron District.
Gawker has just taken checkbook journalism to a whole new level — asking the public to help buy a video tape that is likely to bring down the mayor of a major city. Read more »
Apple’s exposure in a closely-watched price-fixing case over ebooks looks more serious as the CEOs of major publishers — which have already settled with the government — will testify about Apple’s role in the case. Read more »
The Associated Press is raising the alarm over news that the Justice Department secretly seized records for more than 20 phone lines tied to its reporters and bureaus. Read more at GigaOM »
Bloomberg is at the center of a storm over its reporters’ use of the company’s terminals to track customers. The incident has been somewhat overblown — but the underlying issue of news and data platforms has not. Read more »
Bitcoin is more liquid and popular than ever before — though the cyber-currency remains controversial. Here’s a round-up of a busy week of Bitcoin news. Read more at GigaOM »
The Financial Times is the latest publisher to strike a partnership with Flipboard. The deal is interesting because the FT recently left another third-party platform, iTunes. Read more »
The chairman of Dish Networks toned down some of his recent rhetoric against broadcasters on today’s earnings call, and said he is in favor of a subscriber-advertising model for TV. Read more »
Apple has won one of its many lawsuits involving “i” products — a federal judge threw out a case in which a New York publisher claimed that it, not Apple, has the rights to use “iBooks.” Read more at GigaOM »
The long-running fight over Google’s decision to scan the world’s library books took a new twist on Wednesday as an appeals court pushed the parties over copyright law’s “fair use” doctrine. Read more »
Users will now get their own vertical on BuzzFeed, where they can submit according to their “Cat Power.” Read more »
AOL continues its surprising turnaround with another quarter of growth in its content and advertising segment. The company is still, however, depending on its legacy business for all its profit. Read more »
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer addressed video, working from home and the company’s future goal during a chat in New York with Stephen Levy of Wired. Read more at GigaOM »
Jill Abramson, the executive editor of the New York Times, addressed media trends at Wired’s conference in New York City. Read more »
Local papers will get a heaping of Major League Baseball highlights thanks to a new syndication deal with NDN, a company backed by Reggie Jackson. Read more »
The Marketplace Fairness Act — which will force online merchants to collect tax on behalf of other states — passed the Senate on Monday. Read more at GigaOM »
Aereo, which sells $8 a month subscriptions to watch TV on mobile devices, has responded to lawsuits from broadcasters by filing an unorthodox suit of its own this week. The suit may be for PR purposes more than legal ones. Read more »
The Washington Post posted discouraging earnings Friday, with revenue and circulation down from a year ago. Read more »
Bitcoin is a hot topic for the tech and finance industries. GigaOM is hosting an exclusive get-together in San Jose on May 16th where people from Facebook, Google and Expensify will share their thoughts on the crypto-currency. Read more at GigaOM »
Traditional media brands are cranking out video content in the hopes of persuading marketers to shift ad budgets from TV to online offerings. But can companies like Conde Nast and the Wall Street journal deliver the necessary quality and audience size? Read more »
News site The Root has rolled out a page that shows the most popular tweets and trends among black Americans, who are heavy Twitter users. Read more »
Companies want to use Craigslist’s large pool of user-generated classified ads to create new services. Are they innovators or criminals? A California court ruling will help determine that. Read more at GigaOM »
The Weather Company continues to expand beyond its core programming with new web series devoted to adventure and human interest. The new content comes as the company deepens its content and advertising strategies. Read more »
When is the use of another artist’s image “transformative” and when is it just copyright infringement? A major court ruling provides broader protection for appropriation artists. Read more »
Should news outlets in China engage in occasional self-censorship for the greater good of reaching readers and projecting influence? Read more at GigaOM »
The New York Times is planning new lower-priced digital subscriptions for certain types of digital content. Executives provided some — but not many details on the company’s earnings call. Read more »
Google has published new numbers that show how governments around the world are asking to remove more content from services like YouTube than ever before. Read more at GigaOM »
The New York Times’s latest quarterly earnings estimates slightly missed analysts’ expectations. The company also announced a new plan to offer a variety of new, lower-priced digital products. Read more »
A plan to make out-of-state internet merchants collect taxes could soon become law. Is the law simple fairness or does it mean more tax and regulation? Read more at GigaOM »
The Twitter account of the Associated Press has been restored nearly 20 hours after it was suspended following a hacking incident. But, as of Wednesday morning, 95 percent of its followers are missing. Read more at GigaOM »
Financial markets briefly plunged after hackers took over the AP’s account and reported a disaster in Washington. Read more at GigaOM »
Google’s published a blog post last week about “bad apples” in the ad industry. The meaning of the post is now clear: it was intended to rein in shady software, but also to send a message to other advertisers to clean up their act. Read more »
Aereo, a service that lets you watch live TV on your phone, is going live in Boston on May 15. Read more »
The New York Times is no longer restricting non-subscribers’ access to its video content. The move, which comes as the Times tightens other parts of its paywall, is part of the paper’s plans to expand its brand in the video space. Read more »
For The Win wants to take a BuzzFeed-style viral media approach to sports media. The new site, which will compete with rivals like Deadspin, will focus on finding “shareable” content that will be appealing even to people who don’t follow sports. Read more »
The long-awaited Digital Public Library of America launched this week — but its collection does not include the digital repositories of many major university libraries. Meanwhile, a much bigger library collection scanned by Google is tied up in court. Read more »
YouTube notched a major victory in its long-running copyright suit with Google. A New York judge emphatically rejected Viacom’s theory that YouTube had “red flag” knowledge that made it liable for content uploaded by its users. Read more »
Google posted reports that came close to analyst expectations. CEO Larry Page talked up the Google’s more exotic products and dismissed questions about resource allocation and the impact of Facebook’s Home screen on mobile. Read more at GigaOM »
Congress and even some tech companies are promising to get serious about “Do Not Track” legislation, which will let consumers tell companies not to collect their personal information. But any meaningful change is unlikely. Read more »
“Native advertising” is on the lips of everyone in publishing and advertising these days. Blogger and skeptic Felix Salmon asked executives from BuzzFeed and Forbes what it really means. Read more »
The media elite increasingly belongs to digital only entities. Look under the hood of some of these new power brokers, and you’ll see an unprecedented amount of ordinary people shaping the news. Read more »
