Freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution does not protect anonymous libel and slander posted on the Internet. ABC News reported that on April 20, 2012 a jury in Fort Worth, Texas gave a verdict in favor for Mark and Rhonda Lesher whose 2009 lawsuit was filed…
Continue Reading Cybersmear – Jury Verdict of $13.78 Million for Anonymous Postings
Many noted Judges rely on Wikipedia as authority including defining “Blazing Saddles” and “happy hour,” but the US Supreme Court has not yet accepted Wikipedia as authority. The New York Times reported in 2007 that Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit…
Continue Reading Wikipedia Considered Reliable Authority by Many Judges
CISPA would permit “Internet companies such as Google and Facebook to collect and share a wide range of user data with the government” as reported by Computerworld. Now the White House is raising concerns about CISPA. Caitlin Hayden (spokeswoman for the White House’s National Security Council) in an interview with…
Continue Reading Privacy Controversy about Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)
Greenpeace reported that cloud computing may be popular, but generally it’s not very clean and gave Apple Ds and Amazon Fs, while Google got the best grades. The Greenpeace report entitled “How Clean is Your Cloud?” made these observations about electrical consumption:
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Continue Reading Who Has the Dirtiest Clouds? Apple, Amazon, but not Google
“Fair use” of copyrighted works includes criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, so what about use of public documents? The recent class action copyright infringement suit brought against West and LexisNexis (White v. West) will likely turn on the “fair use” doctrine. The Copyright Office describes “fair use&rdquo…
Continue Reading Copyright Infringement or Fair Use of Court Records?
Allegedly MIT’s computer systems were breached by Aaron Swartz who then downloaded millions of scholarly articles, but there are no claims of copyrights infringement. The New York Times reported that in July 2011 Aaron Swartz was indicted on charges that he:
…broke into the computer networks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to…
Continue Reading No Copyright Infringement but Criminal Charges for Massive Download
Few of the +150 million users realize that since LinkedIn began its operations that everyone gives an unrestricted license to everything posted. This may be a surprise since so few people ever bother to read Terms of Service (ToS) on any website or click agreement. Here is the license in…
Continue Reading LinkedIn Has an Unlimited Right to Everything Posted Forever
Pew Research recently reported that amazingly 86% of search engine users “learned something new or important that really helped them or increased their knowledge.” In the same report Pew also stated that:
91% of search engine users say they always or most of the time find the information they are…
Continue Reading 86% of Search Engine Users Learn Something New or Important
