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When Congress updated copyright laws and passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998, it ushered an era of investment, innovation and job creation.  In the decade since, companies like Google, YouTube and Twitter have emerged thanks to the Act, but in the process, they have disrupted the business models and revenue streams of traditional media companies (TMCs).  Today, the TMCs are trying to fast-track a couple of bills in the House and Congress to reverse all of that. Through their lobbyists in Washington, D.C., media companies are trying to rewrite the DMCA through two new bills.  The content industry's lobbyists have forged ahead without any input from the technology industry, the one in the Senate is called Protect IP and the one in the House is called E-Parasites.  The E-Parasite law would kill the safe harbors of the DMCA and allow traditional media companies to attack emerging technology companies by cutting off their ability to transact and collect revenue, sort of what happened to Wikileaks, if you will.  This would scare VCs from investing in such tech firms, which in turn would destroy job creation. The technology industry is understandably alarmed by its implications, which include automatic blacklists for any site issued a takedown notice by copyright holders that would extend to payment providers and even search engines.   What is going on and how exactly did we get here?

Using super-high pressures similar to those found deep in the Earth or on a giant planet, Washington State University researchers have created a compact, never-before-seen material capable of storing vast amounts of energy.

WASHINGTON - A black sealant sprayed on parking lots, driveways and playgrounds turns out to be the largest contributor to the rise of a toxic pollutant in urban lakes and reservoirs across America, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study. Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/05/104742/american-urban-lake-pollution.html#ixzz17OXdgMmS

It's hard not to get lost in a data projection like the NYT's Mapping America: Every City, Every Block, which allows you to parse through 20 or so different projections of the American Community Survey data over the last five years from the Census Bureau.  When you can see the geographic correlations of education levels and income (check out the dividing line at 16th street in both cases), it's a stark reminder of the different Washingtons that exist. Be sure also to check out DCist's initial take (focused on demography and increase/decrease) and GGW's initial take (focused on population shift between wards) This is a data goldmine, and the sort of thing that yours truly is absolutely in love with. Parse through this with us over the next couple weeks.