http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=494
Trial of Google executives set to start in Italy
What is almost certain to be a landmark court case on internet privacy and the liability of hosting sites starts tomorrow in an Italian court with Google executives as the defendants.
The case began in 2006, when four boys in Turin verbally and physically harassed a classmate with Down’s Syndrome. The boy was so upset that he soiled his pants. One of the four perpetrators who had filmed some of the episode, uploaded it to Google Video, where it was viewed by thousands of people until Google removed it two months later.
… In its defense, Google has claimed that it removed the video as soon as it was alerted to its objectionable content by the Italian police and Down Syndrome association. But whereas U.S. law does not hold a publisher liable for content posted on the site by users, European law has a different approach. Should Google executives be convicted, it may mean that sites that host user-uploaded content may have to rethink how they will monitor for compliance with EU law or other non-U.S. law.
The Peninsula has more.
Judges are learning technology (at last!)
http://ralphlosey.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/kipperman-trustee-v-onex-corp/
Textbook Case of Discovery Abuse Exposes a Fallacious “Pig in a Poke” Defense
A Senior District Court Judge in Atlanta recently considered sanctions in what he referred to as a textbook case of discovery abuse: Kipperman v. Onex Corp., 2009 WL 1473708 (N.D.Ga., May 27, 2009). I agree. The nineteen page opinion by Judge J. Owen Forrester describes the conduct of defendants and their attorneys. The core of the abuse was defendants’ pig in a poke defense where they argued that there was no way to know if any email of value existed on backup tapes, so there was no need to spend the money to look. Clever argument, but for the fact that, according to Judge Forrester at least, defense counsel knew, or should have known, that there were lots of important emails on the tapes and so the argument was a con.
What are they thinking? “We can, therefore we must?” How does this move them toward their goals?
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/06/21/2359255/SSN-Required-To-Buy-Palm-Pre?from=rss
SSN Required To Buy Palm Pre
Posted by kdawson on Monday June 22, @05:05AM from the credit-you-said-it dept. privacy cellphones
UltraOne writes
"Sprint requires your Social Security number in order to run a credit check before they will allow you to open an account, according to a store manager in Silver Spring, MD. Since Sprint is the exclusive carrier for the Palm Pre, if you are not willing to provide an SSN, you can't buy this product. I believe a full credit check for this level of consumer purchase is a clear example of overkill. I have supplied an SSN when buying a house and renting an apartment, but never for any other consumer purchase. I have purchased my cars with cash so far, so I don't have first-hand experience, but a car loan also seems to be an appropriate place to require an SSN for a credit check. At the very least, Sprint should have an alternative for people who don't want to give out their SSN. I also found the entire experience a powerful argument against exclusive license agreements."
Read below for details of this reader's experience.
(Related) Along with everything else, they are irritating the people who provide their revenue?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/21/facebook-click-fraud-enraging-advertisers/
Facebook Click Fraud Enraging Advertisers (Updated)
by Michael Arrington on June 21, 2009
Facebook has a big revenue target this year - $550 million, according to investors who were pitched in the last round of funding. That’s nearly twice 2008 revenues of $280 million.
A big part of that revenue comes from cost-per-click advertising from small self serve advertisers. And right now those advertisers aren’t very happy. They’ve been complaining about click fraud of up to 100% for weeks, and the situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
Scores of complaints can be found at WickedFire, where advertisers are complaining of massive click fraud and an indifferent Facebook.
(Related?) Because government lawyers can explain things in plain English better than Wall Street lawyers? Or perhaps because people are not able to think for themselves so the government has to think for them?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021637.html
June 21, 2009
President Obama Discusses New Consumer Financial Protection Agency
Weekly Address, June 20, 2009: President Obama Highlights Tough New Consumer Protections: "...one of the most important proposals is a new oversight agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency [proposed in the White House Financial Regulatory Reform Plan]. It’s charged with just one job: looking out for the interests of ordinary Americans in the financial system. This is essential, for this crisis may have started on Wall Street. But its impacts have been felt by ordinary Americans who rely on credit cards, home loans, and other financial instruments... This new agency will have the responsibility to change that. It will have the power to set tough new rules so that companies compete by offering innovative products that consumers actually want – and actually understand. Those ridiculous contracts – pages of fine print that no one can figure out – will be a thing of the past. You’ll be able to compare products – with descriptions in plain language – to see what is best for you. The most unfair practices will be banned. The rules will be enforced."
Related postings on financial system
Toward Ethical Blogging... (Would anyone like to give me a free shopping spree?)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021635.html
June 21, 2009
FTC Proposed Guidelines to Monitor Blogs For Commerical Claims and Payments
Federal Trade Commission, 16 C.F.R. Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising... "In order to limit its potential liability, the advertiser should ensure that the advertising service provides guidance and training to its bloggers concerning the need to ensure that statements they make are truthful and substantiated. The advertiser should also monitor bloggers who are being paid to promote its products and take steps necessary to halt the continued publication of deceptive representations when they are discovered..."
See also related Forrester report, March 2, 2009 - Add Sponsored Conversations To Your Toolbox - Why You Should Pay Bloggers To Talk About Your Brand, by Sean Corcoran with Josh Bernoff, Jeremiah Owyang, Tom Cummings, and Jennifer Wise: "Kmart gave some bloggers a free shopping spree in exchange for a blog post about the experience — a practice we call sponsored conversation. With appropriate protections for disclosure and authenticity, this practice will take its place alongside public relations and advertising activities in the blogosphere. Marketers should take advantage of sponsored conversation as an entrée into the online conversation. To succeed, you should get to know the bloggers you plan to work with and set expectations across your organization."
[From the Guidelines:
Because paper mail addressed to the FTC is subject to delay due to heightened security screening, please consider submitting your comments in electronic form. [Is someone sending the FTC envelopes with white powder? Bob]
(Related) The new marketing or the new education?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021639.html
June 21, 2009
New on LLRX.com: Marketing Yourself with Webinars
Marketing Yourself with Webinars - Attorney Wells H. Anderson recommends presenting periodic webinars as an effective, direct and efficient technique to attract new clients and professionals who refer business to you.
Could this be repayment for supporting the e-revolution (at the request of the State Department?)
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/06/imagery-update-for-tehran.html
Imagery update for Tehran
Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 2:25 PM
Many of you have been letting us know through Tweets, emails, blog posts, message boards, and even an online petition that you're very interested in seeing recent satellite imagery of Tehran. Well, we've heard your requests and over the past few days have been working with our satellite imagery partner GeoEye to make this possible. We just received updated satellite imagery of Tehran, taken on Thursday the 18th at approximatly 11:18am local time. Below are some screenshots the updated imagery, you can view the entire image in Google Earth with this KML file.
It's simple statistics. With (conservatively) 10 times the number of tech graduates, India's top 10% is equal to all US graduates. Same thing applies in all fields.
Indian CEO Says Most US Tech Grads "Unemployable"
Posted by kdawson on Monday June 22, @02:01AM from the you-stereotype-i-draw-distinctions dept. education business it
theodp writes
"When questioned about his firm's US hiring, Information Week reports that Vineet Nayar, the CEO of the Indian outsourcing giant HCL Technologies, showed he can stereotype with the best of them, telling an audience in NYC that most American tech grads are 'unemployable'. Explaining that Americans are far less willing than students from developing economies like India, China, and Brazil to master the 'boring' details of tech process and methodology, the HCL chief added that most Americans are just too expensive to train. HCL, which was reportedly awarded a secretive $170 million outsourcing contract by Microsoft last April, gets a personal thumbs-up from Steve Ballmer for 'walking the extra mile.' Ballmer was busy last week pitching more H-1B visas as the cure for America's job ills at The National Summit."
This is an area I haven't been paying attention to. (Shame on me.) It should be obvious that searching for information as it comes onto the Internet is the only way to research “real time” events. Which of these will Google buy?
http://venturebeat.com/2009/06/20/who-rules-real-time-search-a-look-at-9-contenders/
Who rules real-time search? A look at 11 contenders
June 20, 2009 | Kim-Mai Cutler
Real-time search engines have proliferated over the last month, with a series of launches from start-ups like Topsy, almost.at and Scoopler. The companies are hoping to edge in on a space that Google co-founder Larry Page has admitted is a weakness for the search giant. And they’re using microblogging and social bookmarking sites as tools to figure out what content is relevant up to the second.
Real-time search is valuable because it lets you know what’s happening right now on any given topic. Companies use it to handle customer service. News junkies use it to follow political events.
And I’ve tested out nine real-time search offerings by pointing them all to Iran’s disputed elections to compare their results. At the end of this post, I’ve also covered two further contenders who launched just in the last couple of days. [Hot field... Bob]
(Related) The content may be shallow, but it is broad!
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/picfog-images-shared-on-twitter/
PicFog: Search For Images Shared On Twitter
PicFog provides a real time search for images shared on Twitter. Using it you will be able to search and browse latest images on any topic. The relevance of image results are based on how frequently they have been shared and discussed on Twitter. Search results are automatically updated with the newest images as they posted on Twitter. You can always pause the auto-refreshing by clicking the “pause” button or view image results in a slideshow.
Google Image search – for my website students
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-useful-tips-to-have-fun-with-google-image-search/
10 Tips To Have Fun Using Advanced Google Search For Images
Jun. 21st, 2009 By Saikat Basu
… I’m going to list 10 ways you can use the advanced Google search to return pin-point accurate image results and will help you in so many ways.
Sort of a “you control it” Who's Who for the web?
http://wikiworldbook.com/index.php
WikiWorldBook
Search & find people on the web
Search Alert - Find out when someone has Googled you (coming very soon)
Manage your online reputation
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