Megaupload Lawyer: Swizz Beatz Was Merely 'Negotiating to Become the CEO'
Layoffs at Lot18: 15 Percent of Employees Were Just Let Go From Fast-Growing Luxury Discount Site
The Museum of Natural History’s 200 Person Video Game, Starring Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt
If you're of the persuasion that, as great as they are, most planetariums need some spicing up, The Museum of Natural History now has you covered. In collaboration with Babycastles, New York City's own D.I.Y. video arcade collective, the museum is presenting a one-night-only group video game, which stars—ahem—legendary indie rock group The Magnetic Fields' singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt. Read More
Scenes From the New York Anti-SOPA/PIPA Rally
The self-proclaimed geeks of the New York tech industry gathered outside senators’ Gillibrand and Schumer’s office Wednesday afternoon to protest the PIPA and SOPA acts, that they say will lead to the end of the internet as we know it.
Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, brought sympathy cards which he planned to hand-deliver to the senators, mourning the death of the internet.
Scott Heiferman, Meetup CEO, held up a sign after his speech that read, “Can we go back to work now?” in a cunning reference to the jobs the industry creates in New York, and perhaps the cold weather too. Read More
Jaguar Presents 12 to Watch in 2012 Episode 12: Evan Ratliff of The Atavist – Building Software to Tell Stories
Meet Evan Ratliff, cofounder and editor of The Atavist, a publishing house that wants to take long-form nonfiction reporting into a multimedia storytelling environment. The Atavist has a dual purpose - to showcase in-depth pieces that fall between traditional magazine and book lengths, and to power the software that allows anyone to create and publish their own likeminded work to devices like the iPad, Kindle, Nook, and iPhone.
Presenting Jaguar for 2012: XK, XF, and XJ -Three ways to be moved like never before. Learn more at jaguarusa.com.
Layoffs Underway at Gilt Groupe Right Now: ‘General Atmosphere Is Terrifying’
Last Wednesday, Betabeat broke the news of impending layoffs at Gilt Groupe. Later that morning, CEO Kevin Ryan downgraded the estimates we had heard, telling AllThingsD that the company intended to "selectively trim" about 50 people from its staff of 900 over the next couple months.
Tipsters have written into Betabeat that some of those layoffs are currently underway. "People leaving. Sadness. Super uncomfortable work environment," said one source who wanted to remain anonymous, adding, "General atmosphere is terrifying." Read More
OMG, WIN: BuzzFeed Hires Doree Shafrir
Rollingstone.com senior editor Doree Shafrir has been named executive editor of BuzzFeed, the company announced today. She will oversee the social news site's expanding pop culture coverage, joining CEO Jonah Peretti, managing editor Scott Lamb and editor in chief Ben Smith (whose new politics desk is currently enjoying a glittery debut on the GOP campaign trail) at the top of the masthead. Read More
That $22 M. SEC Filing from Rue La La? That Wasn’t New Funding [UPDATED]
News of layoffs at flash fashion startup Rue La La leaked last week: 60 people of the company's 550-strong workforce had to be made redundant. But an SEC filing unearthed by TechCrunch today shows an odd contradiction: Rue La La just raised $22 million. UPDATE: The filing is not new money, Rue La La says, but rather a valuation filed as part of Rue La La's equity plan, putting a dollar figure on equity and options that had already been issued.
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Senate Postponing PIPA Vote
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this morning that his chamber would postpone a vote on PIPA, the controversial legislation to curb online piracy.
"In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act,” Mr. Reid said in a statement today.
The legislation under question had been the subject of furious protest. Earlier this week, hundreds marched on the offices of Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to protest the bill, and websites like Wikipedia and Craigslist went dark. The bill has been opposed by the tech industry, but pushed by the film and recording industries, who say that piracy costs them billions of dollars a year. Read More
City Hikes Google’s Taxes in Chelsea by $3.9 M.
Google's property taxes on its massive $1.8 billion office in Chelsea are about to go up by 17 percent, reports the Wall Street Journal, because the neighborhood's commercial value has increased as a whole. Ironically, Chelsea's commercial scene is hoppin' in large part due to--Google. "Google's purchase has helped in transforming what had been something of a commercial backwater in Chelsea into a hot zone, boosting the value of the building," the Journal writes. The value of the building has more than doubled since Google first leased space there in 2006. Google has the right to challenge the assessment. A company spokesman declined to comment to the paper, but we bet someone will be getting a call. "Mike, this is Larry. Wtf."
The Internet Saves Lives: Amit Gupta Found a Bone Marrow Donor
Amit Gupta, co-founder of Jelly NYC, a coworking group, and Photojojo, a site about photography with DIY tips, project ideas and gear, was diagnosed with leukemia a few months ago. It was all-hands-on-deck suddenly as Mr. Gupta wrote a blog post about needing a bone marrow transplant donor: the odds of someone from South Asian descent finding a match were only 1 in 20,000, and Mr. Gupta didn't have much time. So he made a website: http://amitguptaneedsyou.com/. Read More
Republican Candidates Weigh In On SOPA
During tonight's Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, all the candidates weighed in on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act.
Newt Gingrich began his answer with a joke.
"Well, you're asking a conservative about the economic interests of Hollywood and I'm weighing, I'm weighing it. I'm not rushing in, I'm trying to think of all the many fond left wing people who we're so eager to protect," Mr. Gingrich said.
After his swipe at Hollywood, which is one of the main industries supporting SOPA, Mr. Gingrich expressed his opposition to the bill. Read More
Feds Bust Megaupload, So Anonymous Hacks the DOJ, RIAA, MPAA, and Universal Music Group
Well now we know why we haven't been able to access at the Department of Justice's press release about its raid on Megaupload for the past few hours!
The websites for the U.S. Justice Department, the Recording Industry Association of America, Motion Picture Association of America, and Universal Music Group have all been down this afternoon. As TPMIdeaLab reports, hackers who associate themselves with Anonymous are taking credit. Twitter accounts like @YourAnonNews and @AnonOps claim the attacks are in retaliation for today's shutdown and arrests related to the file sharing site Megaupload. Read More
Federal Prosecutors Shut Down File Sharing Site Megaupload for Piracy Violations
The Associated Press is reporting that federal prosecutors in Virginia have shut down Megaupload.com, one of the world's largest file-sharing sites. The indictment accuses the company's founder and six others of violating piracy laws.
Earlier today, we reported confirmation from Swizz Beatz's publicist that the recording artist is indeed Megaupload's current CEO, but he did not found the company, which was started out of Hong Kong in 2005. Kim Schmitz, a German entrepreneur and hacker, is the company's founder.
Mr. Schmitz, whose aliases are listed as Kim Dotcom and Kim Tim Jim Vestor in the indictment, has run afoul of the law before. Authorities say Mr. Schmitz and three other suspects, including senior executives, are already in custody.
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Surprising New Figure in the Piracy Wars? Swizz Beatz, Megaupload.com’s Secret CEO
UPDATE: Federal Prosecutors Shut Down File Sharing Site Megaupload for Piracy Violations
With all the blackouts and SOPA? PIPA? NOPA! chanting yesterday, we missed this exquisite gem of a revelation: Swizz Beatz, husband to Alicia Keys and producer-in-residence at NYU, also happens to be the CEO of Megaupload.com.
For the uninitiated, Megaupload is a service that lets users send and share large media files. It also happens to the site Betabeat used just last night to watch a, um, free version of the latest episode of "New Girl" since the ad-supported version was unavailable on Hulu. Under SOPA's strict guidelines, we believe the punishment for such impudence is being drawn-and-quartered. Read More
City Experiments With Street Sensors to Build a Parking App That Shows Available Spots
At a press conference in the Bronx yesterday, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced that the city would be installing 177 parking sensor. No one tell the Juggalos, but the sensors work using magnets. They can sense when a vehicle is present, as well as the moment a car enters of leaves a space and an individual vehicle's "magnetic signature," reports StreetsBlog.
For the next three months, the city will be testing to determine whether the sensors can stand up to "the rigors of the streets of New York," said Ms. Sadik-Khan. The eventual goal is to develop a smartphone app that tells drivers how many on-street parking spots are free on a particular block. Read More
PIPA Goes the Way of SOPA As Senators Rush to Distance Themselves
Ooh, ooh, ooh. What a little blackout (and 4.5 million signatures) can do for you! In the wake of unprecedented opposition yesterday, at least 26 Senators, including seven former co-sponsors have disavowed themselves from the Protect IP Act (PIPA). PIPA is the Senate's version of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which had stalled out in the House under similar duress.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), one of PIPA's former co-sponsors decided the bill was "simply not ready for prime time."
Eighteen of the Senators now opposed are Republicans. Previously, as VentureBeat reports, PIPA had support from more than 40 Senators, who co-sponsored the bill. We're currently having trouble accessing the OpenCongress site, however, earlier reports say the bill still had support from 33 senators, with a number of others who still have not made their position clear. Read More
Embarrassing Viral Video of You Being Stupid in Public: Not a Violation of Your Privacy, Court Rules
Remember the 2004 clip of that pompous DEA agent who shot himself in the thigh in front of a community center classroom? It was like an awful deleted scene from Breaking Bad meets a bloopers reel, or so the millions who watched it seemed to think. The DEA agent wasn't so happy, especially with the gossipy agency he worked for, who passed the video around enough to go viral. He's since sued the DEA for violating his privacy, by letting the video get out into the open. The result? Read More
New Yorkers: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Has Heard You on SOPA/PIPA, and She…Doesn’t Really Care?
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is a co-sponsor of PIPA, the sibling legislation for SOPA, the awful one that still contains the provision that would allow our government to shut down websites accused—not convicted of—but accused of copyright infringement. Today, there was quite a large protest outside of her office! 1,000 people and a bunch of Internet luminaries were there.
As it turns out, Sen. Gillibrand has heard the voice of the people! And as such, she has taken to her page on (the SOPA-opposed) Facebook to say... Read More
Kickstarter-Funded Restaurant Gets Seal of Approval from New York Times
When the proprietors behind Brooklyn seafood shack Littleneck couldn't come up with the cash to get their restaurant started through traditional outlets, they took to the people: a Kickstarter campaign to fund Littleneck helped get them to where they needed to be. The restaurant opened, and only a few months in, they now have what every chef and restauranteur—especially in this city—dreams of: a seal of approval from the New York Times dining critics. Read More
The Real TechStars of New York
Sporty Spice! An NFL Player and Two Olympians Applied for TechStars New York
TechStars New York managing director David Tisch is neck-deep in applications for the accelerator's eagerly-anticipated upcoming class. But he managed to share a few scintillating details with Business Insider.
Among the 1,000-plus would-be entrepreneurs that have already applied (well ahead of last year), are some notable surprises including: graduates of previous accelerators, a current NFL player, and two former Olympians.
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Why You Shouldn’t Listen to Facebook or Google When They Come Out Against SOPA
Yet another Important Internet Person has come out against SOPA, the controversial legislation that would put the power of a kill-switch in our totally computer-savvy government's hands: The Zuck.
You should not listen to him, nor commend him, nor care. Why? Read More
Bloomberg Calls for Compromise On SOPA
At a morning news conference, Mayor Mike Bloomberg urged Congress to come to a compromise on the Internet piracy legislation now making its way through the House and Senate.
"There’s no easy answer," he said in response to a question from Juan Manuel Benitez of NY1 Noticias. "You have to protect the rights of people to transmit information in a practical sense."
The mayor reached for an old-fashioned comparison for today's digital age, telling reporters, "If you make a threatening phone call over the telephone, going after the telephone company is not something that makes some sense." Read More
