Is Google lining up Republicans against antipiracy bill?

Google managers and employees gave generously to President Barack Obama's candidacy. Chairman Eric Schmidt stumped for the president and is a member of the White House council for science and research. Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president, hosted an Obama fundraiser. Former Google employees now hold high-ranking positions with the administration.

In his book "Free Ride: How the Internet is Destroying the Culture Business," author Robert Levin writes that Google has donated millions of dollars to academic programs started by Lessig. In 2006, Google donated $2 million to the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. Lessig founded the center and then was its director. Levine wrote that Lessig was willing to bend the rules to accept the money.

Google must show content owners and lawmakers that it is willing to take action against online piracy. Conversely, Pro IP would heft extra Web-policing burdens on Google's shoulders--something company managers have long maintained shouldn't be their job and is difficult to accomplish. Google has recommended that one answer may be in developing a research to sniff out piracy, like the filtering system YouTube relies on to locate and remove unauthorized clips. What all this means is, Pro IP is a tightrope walk for Google.

The content companies on whom we critically depend

Piracy has "affected our business with the content companies on whom we critically depend," Schmidt said while his Senate testimony. "So we're in accordance with great pressure to resolve this with a good technological solution. If I may add, the core problem is that you can look at a Web site and you can tell that it's copyright infringement just of the same type--the problem is a computer can't."

In covering digital media for CNET News, Greg Sandoval has broken stories on Apple, Microsoft, YouTube, The Pirate Bay, and the digital efforts of the major music labels and Hollywood studios. Earlier that, in his first tour with CNET News, he covered e-commerce while the dot-com boom and bust. A dogged investigative reporter, he began his journalism career at the Los Angeles Times and followed that with a short TV stint at The E! True Hollywood Story. Later, he spent three years as a staff writer for The Washington Post. Greg is an alumnus of USC and was raised in Chatsworth, California, which is distinguishable only for being the porn capital of the world.

The second-place PC browser

New statistics show Google's browser could then bump Firefox as the second-place PC browser. Android's browser is gunning for Opera Mobile's position.

In part three of a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Microsoft's new phone software, Ina Fried takes a look at Redmond's massive testing operation.