Andy Sternberg

The keynote at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's 16th Annual Pioneer Awards featured two highly knowledgeable new technology blabbermouths debating the future of online video sharing sites and copyright. EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann and Dallas Maverick's owner, HDNet founder, etc, Mark Cuban sparred on safe harbor rights, YouTube/Google infringement suits and the possible futures of Internet video distribution, and, well, kitties. At least we think Cuban said "kitties." The awards ceremony was a supplement...

The third iteration of BarCamp LA is in full effect with a record number of attendee/participants. BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference produced, attended and presented by enterprising media/tech/Internet junkies, worker-monkeys, and inquiring civilians as an alternative to the overly-corporate, overpriced mega-conferences that commonly occur at the Convention Center, Loews Hotel, or somewhere-in-the-Bay Area. Still don't get it? Just come on down, BarCamp is free (thanks to sponsors) and its fun. Day one is winding down...

Stopping just short of demanding abstinence from its Opinion column contributors, the LA Times most likely paid a pretty price to scrounge together today's "Current" section. Case in point: The lead column is by the venerable Daniel Hernandez, the 26-year-old LA Weekly staff writer who left the Times last year. Why? Because, as he told us last August, the culture of the Times was exhausting and unfulfilling. He felt he was "challenging the institutional and...

We hear about Iraq everyday but we don't hear enough from real Iraqis. On the cusp of the first weekend of Spring we bring you the fifth and most recent episode from Hometown Baghdad, a vlog featuring documentaries shot by a group of young Iraqi filmmakers. The first episodes took us into the streets of Baghdad and into living rooms with high-fiving soccer fans glued to the tube -- as long as the 3-hrs on/...

The Daily Show's Demetri Martin examines the legality of watching him discuss the legality of watching The Daily Show on YouTube. For the full effect, watch it illegally via this embedded YouTube player before Viacom submits its takedown notice. If the YouTube video doesn't work, watch legally via Comedy Central's videoplayer, embedded after the jump....

We don't care what you think about Isaac Brock and by the tone of the psychotic laughter punctuating We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank's opening track ("March Into the Sea"), neither does he. Brock grew up in Issaquah, Washington, where he lived in a (reportedly not-so-shabby) trailer home with his parents, who were part of the Grace Gospel Church, which in some way was affiliated with the infamous Waco Branch Davidians. As...

We couldn't drive by without finding out what could possibly necessitate a fully table-clothed catered lunch at Echo Park Lake at 2 p.m. on a Monday. Turned out to be cast and crew from the independently produced The Last Word starring Ray Romano and Winona Ryder, which is being tagged as a romantic dramadey. No word on whether or not Winona rises from the depths of Echo Park Lake as a mermaid to tantalize...

5. Airbus was actually going to dis LAX until a few weeks ago because the airport was so far behind on the infamous ~$50 million modifications needed to accommodate the 8-story tall village-in-the-sky. So while 550 Lufthansa passengers will arrive simultaneously (9:30 a.m. PDT Monday) at New York's JFK, the LAX-bound A380 is practically a test flight, with only handful of Airbus techs and some heavy equipment (although it's rumored that Samuel L. Jackson...

- LAPD seeks felony charges against a 13-year-old alleged dogfight organizer caught in South LA on Monday. The injured pitbulls are expected to recover. The kid, however, may be another story. - LA Times. - Claiming a victory in mission:gangbusters 2007, LAPD central division Capt. Andrew Smith reports, "We really believe we have taken the head off the 5th and Hill Gang." - Daily News. - The transcripts are out on the Khalid Sheikh...

At LAist, we've done everything to convince ourselves that we're not missing out (tho we could use the rain) by steering clear of SXSW (did somebody say 5 weeks 'til Coachella?). Enter our new buddy Finetune. This music-streaming app, a veritable iPod shuffle for the world to share, combines Pandora's music recommending capabilities with Last.fm's social scene and takes the "Web 2.0" look, tagging and sharing mechanisms a step further. So take a break from...