The Huffington Post, an immensely popular politico/media blog, has been accused of stealing content from a host of smaller online publications, Wired reports. Chicago Reader Editor Whet Moser claims the blog is stealing their copyrighted concert reviews by reprinting them on the HuffPo site to drive search engine traffic. He also found other wholesale examples taken from The Onion and Time Out Chicago. Says Moser: "If the future of journalism -- which everyone keeps telling me The Huffington Post represents -- is a bunch of search-engine optimization scams, we have bigger problems than Sam Zell's bad investment strategies." According to …

Last year at this time, news aggregation service Digg hired investment bank Allen & Co. to put itself on the block for an asking price of $300 million. Bloggers predicted that buyers could "easily justify" the price tag for Digg, although no deal ever materialized. BusinessWeek says those were heady days for popular Web 2.0 startups. On Sept. 24 of this year, Highland Capital Partners and three other VC firms invested close to $30 million in the firm. The valuation: $167 million, according to sources close to the deal. Across the board, the value of Web and technology startups is …

GigaOm's Om Malik claims that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is worth about $20 billion of the company's $80 billion market cap. "Jobs gets a premium because he is the Pied Piper who makes it all come together, and that is why Apple shareholders need a rock-solid succession plan," Malik says. Jobs is only 53, but he was diagnosed with a form of pancreatic cancer in 2004. The tumor was successfully removed later that year, but rumors of the cancer's reemergence have surfaced several times since. It may not be pretty or nice, but Malik definitely has a point …

Console games aren't the only part of the gaming sector having a banner year: The Economist points out that "casual" games, which are played over the Web on a PC or mobile device, are also booming. And while these games may lack the depth of console video games, even the most hardcore gamer would admit that simple puzzle, card and quest games can be just as if not more addictive. Now, thanks to the rise of social networking sites like Facebook and smartphones like Apple's iPhone, casual gaming is widening its user base. "Social gaming", or games that can …

Government and industry officials said the U.S. is unprepared for "cyberwar" after 230 representatives of government defense and security agencies, private companies and civil groups participated in a two-day simulation. Reuters said the simulation revealed flaws in leadership, planning, communications and other issues. "There isn't a response or a game plan," said senior vice president Mark Gerencser of the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting service, which ran the simulation. "There isn't really anybody in charge," he told reporters afterwards. U.S. Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.), who chairs the homeland security subcommittee on cybersecurity, said: "We're way behind where we need to be …

NBC clips posted to YouTube without authorization are typically pulled down pretty quickly. However, a clip that recently appeared on "Saturday Night Live" has been allowed to stay on the Google video sharing site, and is racking up huge numbers. "Jizz in My Pants" a skit starring SNL's Andy Samberg has recorded close to 8 million since being posted on the site on Dec. 6. It is YouTube's most watched video for the month. Mysteriously, NBC hasn't ordered the clip to be pulled. Is this a policy shift? No, says CNet's Greg Sandoval. In this case, Samberg and his production …