YouTube vs. Royalties, Spy vs. Spy, Dell vs. a Firehose

YouTube, UK royalties agency get into it ... U.S. Cybersecurity czar takes a hike ... Dell rolls out rugged laptop ... Google tries out expanding advertisements ... sheriff sues Craigslist over prostitution ... Google's Schmidt denies interest in Twitter purchase, and more.

MTV pretty much gave up on music years ago in order to concentrate on how many different variations of "The Real World" and "Road Rules" it could squeeze out. But YouTube has largely picked up MTV's slack -- type in just about any video you want to see, and Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) sharing site will play it for you.

Or perhaps not, if you're living in the UK. YouTube is in a legal standoff with PRS for Music, a UK outfit that collects royalties for musical artists.

YouTube says PRS wants it to pay too much money each time users click on a music video of one of their artists. It also alleges that the arrangement PRS has proposed wouldn't even specify which songs would be included in each license it wants to sell. The deadlock's been going on for months, and YouTube has finally crimped the hose -- no more music videos for UK viewers.

They'll have to resort to music videos the old-fashioned way, which involves holding your breath and spinning in circles while listening to a tune. Works every time, and it's usually just as good.