A copyright battle between the AP and an online news-clipping service is reaching a climax, and the case could have significant implications for fair use. AP sued Meltwater Group last year, arguing the "reputation management" company had a "parasitic business model" that violated copyright. Meltwater is arguing that it is merely a search engine. Last week, the nation's largest newspapers lined up to tell the New York federal judge considering the case that they support the AP.

bitcoinstore.com, an electronics retail outlet that only accepts Bitcoins as payment. Bitcoinstore.com stands out among potential competitors because the site's investors have only one goal – to urge major online retailers to start accepting Bitcoin.

"The idea behind the site entirely is to force Amazon and Newegg to accept Bitcoin by saying 'Hey, look at our prices, we beat you, now beat us,'" said bitcoinstore.com head of marketing Jon Holmquist.

To do that, bitcoinstore.com sells its products at 0 percent markup.

The statement below was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications. This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O’Brien at Thursday’s pretrial hearing. O’Brien provided Salon with the full transcript.

6-year-old girl gets when going to the store after cops respond to a call of a young child being unsupervised.

Government sure knows how to efficiently spend money. West Virginia has spent $24 million on 1,164 Cisco model 3945 branch routers for their government offices (adding up to 1 high end enterprise level router per 13 government employees). Each router is able to handle hundreds (or even thousands) of simultaneous users depending on their bandwidth needs.

Cody Wilson, like many Texan gunsmiths, is fast-talkin’ and fast-shootin’—but unlike his predecessors in the Lone Star State, he’s got 3D printing to help him with his craft. Wilson’s nonprofit organization, Defense Distributed, released a video this week showing a gun firing off over 600 rounds—illustrating what is likely to be the first wave of semi-automatic and automatic weapons produced by the additive manufacturing process. Last year, his group famously demonstrated that it could use a 3D-printed “lower” for an AR-15—but the gun failed after six rounds.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced Friday that the state will take over the operations of Detroit's city government due to its long-standing financial problems. The takeover is short of a formal bankruptcy, but it will include appointing an emergency manager who would have many of the same powers as a bankruptcy judge. It could mean throwing out contracts with public employee unions and vendors that the city can't afford, and could lead to further cutbacks in already depleted city services.

A student's outgoing voice mail message quoting the theme to "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" led to a school lockdown in Ambridge, Pa. A receptionist from a doctor's office called to remind student Travis Clawson about an upcoming appointment. Clawson didn't pick up, so the call went to voice mail. The receptionist heard what sounded like a threat about "shooting" and "school" on Clawson's outgoing message.

A ride sharing service called SideCar that is very popular in San Francisco and Seattle is under attack by the Austin City Council for being an unregulated taxi service. The City wants to conduct Sting operations to bust, fine, and impound the vehicle of volunteers who give rides to people on a donation basis only. This would be conducted during South by Southwest when the company plans to launch in Austin. The service is offered through a smartphone app and no cash is exchanged.

The gun owners of New Jersey have had enough! They’ve tried asking for their rights, they’ve tried protesting in the streets. It’s not working. The tyrants in Trenton are going to take their gun rights away regardless. Seeing that “There *IS* no redress of our LEGITIMATE grievances within the three branches of NJ government.” The New Jersey Second Amendment Society has announced the start of a campaign of civil disobedience. “In a SINCERE effort to avoid an unhappy outcome, we must attempt to reach the public through acts of non-violent civil disobedience.