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February 17, 2012, 4:26 pm By BEN SISARIO

A revised indictment against the file-sharing site Megaupload was announced on Friday, with new charges against the site’s operators and some new details about the investigation. In addition to the five counts of conspiracy, money laundering and criminal copyright infringement in the original indictment last month, the seven men being charged — including Kim Dotcom, the site’s founder — face three new infringement charges and five wire fraud charges.

The new indictment, which was filed Thursday in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., adjusts some numbers, apparently after a closer review of evidence: Megaupload had only about 67 million registered users, not the 180 million earlier claimed, and only about six million users ever uploaded files. One of the most egregious users, named VV, uploaded 16,950 files over six years, yielding 34 million views and “numerous take-down e-mails, including 85 notices from one representative,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Five of the seven members of what the government calls the “Mega Conspiracy” have been arrested after a raid on Mr. Dotcom’s mansion in New Zealand on Jan. 19, and are awaiting trial.

A Return to eMusic: Domino Records, an independent label whose acts include Animal Collective and Franz Ferdinand, has returned its catalog to the digital retailer eMusic after an absence of a little more than a year. Domino was one of three prominent indies, along with Merge and the Beggars Group, to withdraw from eMusic in November 2010. Those labels gave no clear explanation for their departure, but some hinted at the time that the recent arrival of the major labels to eMusic — long a haven for independent music — had altered the site’s business terms. Merge and Beggars remain absent, but in a statement, Adam Klein, eMusic’s chief executive, said, “While we are in conversations and have great relationships in the industry, we cannot give an update at this time.”

Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.

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Media Decoder Blog: Digital Notes: New Charges, and More Details, in Megaupload Case

by Cassie Title

By now, faithful readers, you’ve come to know me a little bit. And I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been a little confused about what show it is that we’ve actually been watching. With references to "The Secret Circle" and "Gossip Girl," you can’t really blame me. But it all made sense tonight: the sappy music, the desperate longing on Elena and Stefan’s faces when the director switched frames during their missed phone connection, the pain in Damon’s eyes when he picked up Elena’s call, the fact that Rebekah was RIGHT THERE in his bed and left at exactly the same time Elena arrived, the bizarre reference to the actual title of this show (Stefan writing in a diary!) that producers forgot about—with good reason—two seasons ago, Klaus telling Caroline that he wants to know her hopes, her dreams, everything. We’ve been watching a soap opera, and it’s more than fitting that this episode’s name hearkened to the mother (get it?) of daytime TV. Plus, Esther wants to kill all her children. In short, it was a meandering, plot-heavy episode, so let's get down to it:

1. Elijah took Elena to a clearing in the woods, and started to give her some Original history lessons. The natives did this here, the village looked like this then, until splat! All her lies blew up in her face when he figured out Esther’s true plan. So, he did what any all-powerful being would do when faced with imminent death: He dug a hole in the ground, and took a literal leap of faith that by keeping Elena hostage underground (with an angry mercenary Rebekah on orders to kill her if she ran) the Salvatore brothers would stop Esther’s spell.

2. So, it became time for the dynamic duo to come up with a plan. Elijah explained his deal, and Damon retorted with his usual wit:
"I’m embarrassed to admit, but when it comes to killing 1,000-year old resurrected witches, I’m a little rusty." Oh, Damon, you are something.

And the conclusion? Esther was channeling the entirety of the Bennett bloodline—living and dead—but needed mother and daughter to complete the energy flow. If someone was to break the bloodline, she would lose the power to do the spell. So now we’re all thinking that Damon or Stefan has to kill—OMG!—Bonnie or Abby.

3. Since Elena would never forgive them, Damon came up with a less diabolical plan: Alaric daggered Kol, because if one of them got daggered, all of them would be daggered. Except, Klaus didn’t get affected, the dagger was taken out of Kol and Elijah showed up demanding that they give up the witches’ location or Rebekah would kill Elena stat.

4. Plan B: the brothers flipped a coin to see who was going to do the dirty deed. And then Damon TURNED ABBY INTO A FREAKING VAMPIRE. Well, that is one clever way to end the Bennett blood line, because as we all know, you cannot be a witch and a vampire. And yet again, Damon saved Stefan from himself, because he actually won the coin toss, but did the unforgivable thing so that Stefan would have a chance to redeem himself for Elena (and I guess himself.) Because as Damon said: "I thought I could win her from you fair and square. It’s for the best though, that she didn’t want me. I’m better at being the bad guy, anyway." Oh, yes you are.

5. Since the spell went wrong, everybody fled except for Rebekah and Klaus. Elijah even left Elena a heartfelt apology note. But Rebekah told Klaus something important: On the cave where the natives wrote the Original family history, there’s a discrepancy with dates. Remember that ancient white oak tree? The one the Originals burnt to the ground so that no one could kill them? Well, a new one was planted somehow—a whole 300 years after they fled to the New World. Something fishy’s going on—they can still die—and I sense some sort of scuffle a’coming.

6. Meredith—or shall we say the sexy, psycho doctor—brought Ric to her house to help him recuperate. But then he got up and found all sorts of medical records, and the supposed Gilbert weapon that killed Bill and Brian and almost killed Ric. And then he looked up. And then Meredith said: You weren’t supposed to see him. And then she shot him! OMG SHE FREAKING SHOT HIM! AND THEN THERE WERE A LOT MORE SHOTS! OMG OMG OMG IS RIC DEAD? AGGGGGGGGGH!

And now we’re deprived, again, until March 15. We’ve gone through this so many times, Julie and Kevin, I don’t even know what to say. Just that I’m very, very, very disappointed in you.

What did you think of this episode? Should we start referring to Damon as Damon the Vampire Gigalo? Are we going to delve deeper into Rebekah’s mommy and daddy issues? Is Klaus going to help his siblings do away with the only weapon that could kill them? Have the Originals really all dispersed, or will we get to see them again? If it was a full moon, why didn’t Tyler come back? Are you stoked to see the Damon/Sage flashback episode?! Is Esther really gone? Will Bonnie ever be able to forgive Elena for causing her so much pain? What’s going to happen with Abby?! Tell me, tell me, tell me. We have another long month ahead of us, and I intend to spend every waking moment discussing these poignant issues with you. Below, or on Twitter. So let’s get talking, friends. Let’s get talking.

Tags Candice Accola, Claire Holt, daniel gillies, Ian Somerhalder, Joseph Morgan, Kat Graham, Matt Davis, Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Vampire Diaries

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'Vampire Diaries' Recap: 'All My Children'

17-02-2012 14:29 Join CITI TV for Dot Edu with host Kellie Hunter with guest Julian Carter as they discuss registration for the College and Career Institute. For more DOT Edu check out http://www.youtube.com For more CITI TV content check out http://www.MYCITITV.com

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Dot EDU - CCI Registration - Video

The New York Knicks will return to New York cable just in time (or maybe a little late) to capitalize on Linsanity, according to a Tweet from The New York Times' Howard Beck. "Knicks and Jeremy Lin will be coming back to Time Warner cable customers soon. Agreement reached," he wrote.

Due to a licensing fee dispute between Madison Square Garden, home of the Knicks (and their new superstar Lin), Time Warner cable customers, all 2.8 million of them, couldn't watch the games live without paying extra for the sports package. With Lin blowing up the basketball court, that presented a particular problem for this year's season. Now, with more people watching the generally dreadful Knicks more than ever, Time Warner and MSG have worked things out after a 48 day impasse.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgreenfield at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

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Knicks Back on New York TV, Just Lin Time

Maybe the GOP (or more specifically, certain members of the party) returned to the '50s in just one day, but the rest of us haven't. Beyond the obvious social and cultural shifts of the last 60 years, there is one major factor: the Internet.

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Talking Points Memo's Evan McNorris-Santoro looked at the confluence of events on Thursday and pronounced it "the day Washington fell into a time-warp," turning back the discussion of women's rights 60 years. Others, such as the editors of The New Republic, think we are on the brink of a "culture war" over women's rights. They're reacting to the last few weeks of controversy: most recently women were kept out of a hearing on Obama's new contraception ruling so that men could discuss the "religious freedoms" at stake without having to be bothered by that silly context of female health concerns, and one 71-year-old Rick Santorum backer made a horrible grandpa joke about birth control, for which he has apologized. It goes back further -- we're also talking about the recent public battle between Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood, in which Susan G. Komen initially withdrew funding to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings (for "legal reasons" that seemed very clear to many were actually anti-abortion ones) but changed their tune when the backlash appeared detrimental to their organization.

RELATED: The GOP Takes 'No' for an Answer

All three episodes have elements that would be familiar in the 1950s, but the way we engage in media -- and the widespread, rapid exchange of information via social media and other tools -- has changed things drastically between then and now. In the 1950s, an Internet campaign would not have existed to essentially force Susan G. Komen to backtrack on its stance about Planned Parenthood. Outrage over what looked like former Komen SVP Karen Handel's heavy-handed orchestration of the decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood due to her staunch anti-abortion ideology would likely not have resulted in Handel's resignation, a resignation quickly proliferated online. In the 1950s, should Fleiss's Bayer Aspirin joke have circulated widely enough to have offended enough people to inspire action against it, women and men would not have been able to call him out on it so rapidly, nor to make him accountable for it. He never would have apologized on his own blog. (Nor, apparently, taken down that blog.)

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Even if some Republicans desperately would like to return to another era (and some, arguably, haven't changed much in their attitudes since that time), the way in which we're having these discussions -- on blogs, on Twitter, on our Facebook pages, and in an overwhelmingly participatory, everyone-has-a-voice fashion -- has changed the political and social landscape forever. As much as we bemoan the state of things today (and there's no denying that certain attitudes are not only old-fashioned but downright archaic and dangerous), we have to acknowledge that we're in an unprecedented time for change. One thing the Internet is very, very good at is existing as a place where the self-righteous, the inauthentic, or the blatantly ridiculous can be brought to a kind of public justice -- shamed, held accountable, debated, made to explain. The Internet catalyzes backlash. And we keep seeing the Internet get results.

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The recent examples of such Internet wins, righting the tasteless jokes and PR injustices; taking one person or group to task and punishing them for their mistake, all seem to involve short skirmishes rather than full-out wars, though. Maybe it's the attention span of the Internet, or the 24-hour news cycle -- maybe this war will actually happen in short, bitty bursts online as opposed to the drawn-out physical campaigns of old. Or maybe this isn't a war at all. Maybe we're just living in a particularly fraught time because we sit on the precipice of great change. 

RELATED: GOP-ers Are Getting Wary of Michele Bachmann

Either way, it seems as though she who uses the Internet best will have a distinct and unprecedented advantage in the ongoing battle. And the more retrograde conservatives get, the stronger the foundation, mobilization, and mass of any counter-argument. Practically speaking, as Evan McMorris-Santoro writes in TPM, "This could be a big problem for the GOP when the calendar reaches November."

Thank the 21st century for that.

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Never Fight a Culture War on the Internet