IT Buoy

Tech Today gathers all the biggest technology news of the morning’s Wall Street Journal into one place for your reading pleasure. Apple Scrambles to Secure iPad Deals: Apple is still working to secure content for the iPad with just weeks to go before the tablet computer’s release, said people familiar with the matter, as the company tempers some of its initial ambitions for the much-hyped device. Review Site Yelp Sued by Local Businesses: Yelp, a popular Web service that allows users to rate local businesses, is in the hot seat to defend the way it sells online ads to local businesses. Site Barred From Fast Release of Ratings: A federal judge ruled that Theflyonthewall.com misappropriated the “time-sensitive recommendations” of several banks by immediately publishing news of analyst rating changes.

As reported by the Journal, the reviews Web site Yelp is under fire. It is facing three lawsuits from businesses that claim it improperly skews reviews in favor of companies that advertise with it and against those that do not. Yelp denies the allegations, blaming misunderstandings about the way it filters reviews to prevent businesses from inflating their ratings. One contributing factor may be that Yelp chooses not to explain much about how it decides which reviews to show and which to hide. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman says that exposing too much of the site’s secret technology sauce would make it easier for shills to fill the site with puffed up reviews. “It is similar to the challenge that Google faces in ranking Web sites,” he said. “The more that they share with the world about how they specifically evaluate links on the Web, the more they make it easy for somebody that wants to rank number one to do so.” Still, Yelp is going on the offensive to explain why it filters. In addition to numerous blog posts addressing critics, the company last year hired a local business outreach manager, and has been holding a series of meetings with businesses to explain its practices

Documents released Thursday in a court battle between Viacom and Google’s YouTube reveal the arguments over alleged copyright infringements on the video site. As the Journal’s Jessica Vascellaro, Ben Worthen and Sam Schechner report , Viacom claims that YouTube sought to exploit copyrighted works for profit, while Google argues that Viacom itself had secretly uploaded clips it later demanded YouTube remove. AFP/Getty Images The Internet homepage of the YouTube Web site Below are excerpts from the documents. (The filing and comments from Google are available here . Viacom’s filings are available here .) The Big Picture From Viacom: “The starting point for this motion is this undisputable fact: tens of thousands of videos on YouTube, resulting in hundreds of millions of views, were taken unlawfully from Viacom’s copyrighted works without authorization. Fostering and countenancing this piracy were central to YouTube’s economic business model.” From YouTube: “Plaintiffs demand billions of dollars from YouTube because a tiny fraction (less than two one-hundredths of a percent) of the videos that users have uploaded to the service allegedly infringe their copyrights. While plaintiffs now insist that YouTube is liable because it should have recognized that their content was not authorized, plaintiffs’ own actions defeat that claim. Plaintiffs … have overtly and covertly uploaded to YouTube a vast array of their own video clips for marketing purposes.” Viacom argues that YouTube’s founders knew they were benefiting from copyrighted material

Google lines up some big partners – including Intel and Sony – in an effort to move its technology into the living room. Plus, GameStop shares jump more than 9% and Lenovo launches ThinkPads with new designs, including – shudder — a revamped keyboard. Follow @staceydelo on Twitter. Previously on Digits Live Show

Amazon this morning released a version of its Kindle e-book software that works on Mac computers — a small move, but one that underscores the company’s efforts to maintain its share of the market as Apple launches its iPad. Amazon’s Kindle for Mac allows users to read e-books from Amazon on their Mac computer. Although e-books sold for the Kindle are locked into Amazon’s ecosystem, the company is keen to emphasize that they can be read on a number of other devices that allow for Kindle software. In its press release announcing the Kindle for Mac, Amazon pointed out that those devices include PCs, the iPhone, the BlackBerry and “soon the iPad.” Kindle for the Mac allows Amazon to highlight the portability of its products, but an early review from Wired raises questions about how useful people will find this particular reader, at least in its early form. The review calls the free software “pretty bad” and “bare-bones,” although it does say it’s “nice to have a way to read on a computer.” Apple’s upcoming iPad launch and the company’s deals with publishers have created worries about Amazon’s ability to maintain its hold on the e-book business. The online bookseller has been able to dominate this market because it had the first popular e-book reader in the Kindle and because its agreements with publishers allowed it to sell e-books at a discounted price. Recent articles in Publishers Marketplace and the