AP – Apple Inc. has temporarily blocked Motorola Mobility’s attempt to have it withdraw several iPhone and iPad models from its Internet store in Germany, the latest twist in an extended legal duel over patents between the companies.

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Apple, Motorola in patent struggle in Germany
(AP)

Reuters – Three days before Super Bowl XLVI, U.S. prosecutors said they seized 16 websites that illegally streamed live sports and pay-per-view events over the Internet, and charged a Michigan man with running nine of those websites.

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U.S. shuts 16 sports piracy websites pre-Super Bowl
(Reuters)

AP – Facebook is friending Wall Street: The Internet social network is going public in a stock offering that could value it at up to $100 billion, eight years after its computer-hacking CEO Mark Zuckerberg started the service at Harvard.

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Status update: Facebook to go public, raise $5B
(AP)

AP – The founder of Wikipedia hailed the online encyclopedia’s role in helping halt U.S. legislation aimed at cracking down on Internet piracy, saying the proposed bills needed to be stopped because they were flawed.

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AP Interview: Wikipedia founder hails role in US
(AP)

Reuters – A New Zealand court granted bail on Thursday to two associates of the founder of online file-sharing website Megaupload, accused of being involved in a scheme that allegedly made more than $175 million from Internet piracy and illegal file sharing.

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NZ court bails two associates of Megaupload founder
(Reuters)

AP – Google’s U.S. lobbying bill more than tripled to $3.76 million in the fourth quarter as the Internet search leader fought proposed changes to online piracy laws and sought to influence a wide range of other issues that could affect its fortunes.

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Google’s 4Q lobbying bill triples to $3.76 million
(AP)

Mashable – This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. The Internet is a black hole of procrastination. It’s a rare occasion when we open up our web browsers and just do work without checking Facebook or getting sucked into YouTube.

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5 Firefox Add-Ons for Increasing Productivity
(Mashable)

AP – Funding for startups rose 19 percent in the fourth quarter as venture capitalists fueled money into more companies in the Internet, clean technology and other sectors.

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Venture capital investments up 19 percent in 4Q
(AP)

AP – Getting more small companies wired will help their businesses grow, and help their country fight unemployment, officials said Thursday as Google launched a project that makes it easy to showcase South African entrepreneurship on the Internet.

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Google launches project for S.African businesses
(AP)

AP – If a day without Wikipedia was a bother, think bigger. In this plugged-in world, we would barely be able to cope if the entire Internet went down in a city, state or country for a day or a week.

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No Wikipedia? What if the Internet went down?
(AP)