Lessig Blog:
Really great news from YouTube  —  Notice an important new feature in the world of YouTube — a “Click to download” link.  YouTube is rolling this out slowly, initially with content that aspires to be consistent with principles of open government.  I’m told it will be offered more generally.

Alana Semuels / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Cisco’s unfortunate airplane commercial during coverage of flight 1549  —  Let’s say you’re a big-name advertiser, and one of your TV commercials mocks airplanes, flying and water landings.  You probably wouldn’t want to run that ad during CNN’s coverage of US Airways Flight 1549, which crash-landed Thursday in […]

Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Microsoft and Yahoo Executives Meet  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, met in New York earlier this week with Roy Bostock, Yahoo’s chairman, according to a person briefed on the meeting.  —  It was the second high-level contact between Microsoft and Yahoo …

Toni / F-Secure Antivirus Research Weblog:
Calculating the Size of the Downadup Outbreak  —  The number of Downadup infections are skyrocketing based on our calculations.  From an estimated 2.4 million infected machines to over 8.9 million during the last four days.  That’s just amazing.  —  We’ve received a number of queries …

Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News:
AMD to trim 1,100 jobs, initiate temporary pay cuts  —  Updated at 10:12 a.m. PST, with more information about AMD’s financial performance.  —  Advanced Micro Devices announced Friday it would slash its workforce by 9 percent and institute temporary salary cuts, from its executive chairman on down to hourly workers.

Bloomberg:
Apple’s Jobs Said to Be Considering Liver Transplant  —  Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is considering a liver transplant as a result of complications after treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2004, according to people who are monitoring his illness.

John Battelle / FM Blog:
Change and Opportunity  —  Challenging economic times force all of us to focus.  At FM, our focus, now more than ever, is on what we do best - create media experiences that are valuable to our publishers, their audiences, and our brand marketing partners.  —  Given our journalistic heritage … […]

Microsoft:
Microsoft Statement on European Commission Statement of Objections  —  Statement of Objections expresses Commission’s preliminary view on the inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows.  —  “Yesterday Microsoft received a Statement of Objections from the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Watch The Obama Inauguration From Your iPhone With Ustream  —  John Ham, the cofounder and CEO of live video streaming site Ustream, stopped by this afternoon to show me their newest stuff - a yet-to-be-released application that lets users watch live streams from the service on their iPhone.

Daniel Lyons / Newsweek:
Rotten Reporting  —  The media’s coverage of Apple bites.  Here’s why.  —  For the past six months Steve Jobs has been looking terribly ill. But only this week did Apple finally acknowledge that Jobs isn’t doing well, when the company announced that Jobs would take a leave for six months.