Should bloggers be held to the same journalistic standards as news reporters? No way, says Amanda Congdon, a self-described video blogger who made a name for herself as host of the popular online show Rocketboom. In her reports, Congdon would deliver quick-hit news items, but when it came to big issues like Net neutrality, she revealed Rocketboom's free Internet, pro-tech bias. After helping the online video show rise to prominence, Congdon left to become a producer and host of a somewhat similar report on ABCNews.com, though her work appears on the news site. Which is precisely why CNET's Daniel …

Thanks to big efforts spearheaded by National Public Radio, the Library of Congress Copyright Royalty Board has agreed to reconsider its decision to increase royalties for music played on the Web. The judges on Tuesday said they would accept arguments until April 2 from NPR, commercial radio broadcasters and college stations, all of which face astronomically higher Web royalty fees if the board's decision isn't overturned or at least pared down significantly. Some highlights from those arguments: NPR said higher royalties would force it to cease offering Web simulcasts altogether. Webcaster SomaFM, which owns 11 Web music channels, …

So Google is moving into the cost-per-action (CPA) business, which means marketers will now only pay for those ads which lead to a specific action, such as a phone call for a service provider, or a sale for a retailer. The new service could be Google's answer to click fraud, which occurs when a business rival deploys an automated program to repeatedly click on a marketer's ad to deplete the company's ad budget. If advertisers are only paying for ads that lead to a sale, there's no sense in sending out click bots, is there? CPA could also be …

Click into all the happenings at the MediaPost OMMA Conference at http://blogs.mediapost.com/raw/?cat=8

Will content distribution be a bigger business than media or hardware? Where market capitalization is the measure, content will always be king--just look at Google's $140 billion valuation versus ISPs. They "risk becoming dumb pipes, unless they offer something exclusive or compelling." Does that mean they should seek out partnerships with YouTube and MySpace? Time Warner Cable's Mike Roudi, vice president of wireless, doesn't think so. These marketing deals aren't game changers, network upgrades are. Meanwhile, voice, television, Internet and wireless services providers face subscriber defection unless they agree to offer competitors' services. As a result, media distribution …

Take Two Interactive, publisher of the wildly popular "Grand Theft Auto" video game series, has said it would explore a sale days after shareholders said they would stage a board takeover in order to oust company CEO Paul Eibeler. The move, organized 12 days ago by shareholders owning 46 percent of the company's stock, comes after years of scandals, including backdated options, overstated revenue and hidden sexual content in its games. If no sale is organized, video game insiders said Take Two might spin off properties. These include "Grand Theft Auto" publisher Rockstar Games (the one it would most likely …

A parenting Web site that sued Google for engaging in the seismic search shift known as the "Google Dance" has been ordered to compensate Google for certain legal fees resulting from the "frivolous" lawsuit. KinderStart, a directory and search engine focused on parenting information, sued the search giant last year for behaving anti-competitively after it fell to a "zero" ranking in the company's search index. Among other things, the parenting site said Google skewed its search results to maintain its industry dominance, reserved top search placements for those that paid premium fees and discriminated against sites for religious …

The mobile Web is something of a conundrum for the Web's media giants. There just aren't enough consumers the services. That means the services must not be good enough, right? For one thing, using a cell phone is a fundamentally different experience from using a laptop. The screen is smaller, navigation is more difficult and usually, a consumer won't be spending any heavy-duty time in front of their phone consuming content. Wireless consumers need to be able to find relevant, location-based information. Added MySpace and YouTube content are cute and in some cases, even useful features, but for the …

University of Chicago law professor Douglas Lichtman joined the Viacom team in its fight against YouTube, what he calls Google's "haven for copyright infringement." That moniker may be indisputable, but the real issue is whether YouTube should be responsible for what its users upload. Lichtman accuses the online video provider of "happily distributing" copyrighted material and benefiting from it, while refusing "to take even simple steps that would reduce the infringement." His main point is that because Google didn't create the content filtering system it promised, the company must be "mercilessly punished." Once again, Google didn't tell …

Click into all the happenings at the MediaPost OMMA Conference at http://blogs.mediapost.com/raw/?cat=8