technoballs » legal

Bebo Ups the Ante on Keeping Kids Safe

the ballmaster — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:49:47 +0000

Bebo recently implemented a new site button which let’s its users report priority issues:

The button is called the CEOP Report button, (CEOP stands for UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre), if you click on it, you’ll get advice and help about issues such as child abuse (but also viruses and hacking), as well as details on how to inform the police and CEOP.

It’s a smart move that signals to law enforcement just how serious Bebo takes child safety. The fact that it is user-driven is another plus, as it does not require Bebo to do anything other than react in a timely manner to reports coming in. Of course, there will always be users who see a predator behind every tree, but wading through the false positives is hopefully something that Bebo bore in mind prior to releasing this feature.

Will MySpace and Facebook release a similar feature? Don’t count on it. MySpace appears to be in a kind of cozy equilibrium with law enforcement, and has little reason to take a proactive measure like this unless compelled to do so. Due to its walled garden approach, Facebook also does not seem to require such a feature. Its users already seem capable of reporting such issues to the mothership without the need for additional mechanisms.

Of course, all of these sites are one ambitious politician’s press conference away from implementing significant new controls to keep their users safe.

via Bebo’s Abuse Button: Should Facebook and MySpace Follow Suit?.

Caselaw Now Searchable in Google Scholar

the ballmaster — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:34:43 +0000

Google is on a tear. Over the past several months, it has rolled-out several new products: FastFlip and Image Swirl among them. Now it has incorporated full-text legal opinions for state and federal courts into Google Scholar.

By adding caselaw into Scholar, Google is squarely taking aim and paid services like Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis. These companies will likely find themselves in a similar position to paid web analytics companies like SiteCatalyst when Google unveiled its free competitor, Google Analytics.

Hard to compete against free.

via Google Scholar’s Caselaw Finder: It Works! (GOOG).

Being Held Liable for Tweets

the ballmaster — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:45:17 +0000

Courtney Love is being sued by a fashion designer for allegedly criticizing her on Twitter. Among other things, Love apparently tweeted that the designer had a history of cocaine use.

Smart.

Just because the medium may be novel, defamation can still be shown in such cases. Despite that, observers are still trying to sort out the ramifications of social media liability–

Legal experts say such Internet-related cases are being watched closely because they confront new and unaddressed areas of American law.For example, how should a libel case be handled when it comes to social media? How can society balance accountability with free speech? And if information — from private thoughts to public data — is so readily available, how do we define what constitutes privacy?

Privacy? It seems disingenuous to suggest that Love expected privacy when she tweeted about her designer’s supposed drug habit. After all, you can always make your Twitter account private, and Love apparently chose not to do so. In cases like this, it’s pretty clear that the purpose of using social media was, indeed, to distribute the message to as broad an audience as possible.

via Can the law keep up with technology? – CNN.com.

YouTube 101: How To Land Your Sorry Ass In Jail

the ballmaster — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:28:14 +0000

According to Mashable’s Adam Ostrow, a graffiti artist in Los Angeles who climbed onto a freeway overpass to spray paint his tag has been arrested after police discovered his YouTube video showing the entire incident:

According to the LA Times, the artist – Cyrus Yazdani – has been sentenced to three years and eight months in jail and ordered to pay $117,196 in damages resulting from 32 acts of felony vandalism.

Here’s the video, for anyone curious to see what goes into freeway tagging. I was surprised to see it happen in broad daylight. (I always assumed these guys would want to do their thang under cover of darkness.)

This incident shows just how quickly law enforcement is realizing the power of social media to help it detect criminal activity.

via YouTube Fame Lands Graffiti Artist in Jail [Video].

Illinois Bans Registered Sex Offenders from Social Networking Sites

the ballmaster — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:45:42 +0000

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill into law which makes it illegal for registered sex offenders (RSO’s) from creating accounts on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. While the law sounds plausible at first glance, such legislation often suffers from the law of unintended consequences, punishing a wide multitude of people never intended to get caught-up in the sweep.

Consider MySpace’s efforts to scan its entire user base of 480 million user accounts for RSO’s:

What criteria should be used to make a positive match on a RSO? Name match? DOB? If the person looks like a known RSO?
Should the legal definition of RSO be used? If so, you will need to include teenagers who have (gasp) had sex with each other.
Like any human process, errors will be made. What is an acceptable false-negative rate? 1%? 10%? How is a social network to measure such a metric?

Cashmore nicely sums-up the outcome of such well-intentioned, but often flawed initiatives:

…punishing rapists and sex offenders may feel satisfying, but this isn’t what the bill does:it’ll likely affect those who committed far lesser crimes, prove unenforceable, and may even be unconstitutional.

via Sex Offenders Banned from Social Media Sites.

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington Facing Arrest in UK

the ballmaster — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:07:47 +0000

TechCrunch founded Michael Arrington faces arrest in the UK due to losing a case of libel that had been brought against him by Twitblogs CEO Sam Sethi:

The UK’s High Court of Justice ruled last week that Arrington and TechCrunch’s Interserve Inc libelled Sethi. The court ruled that that Arrington/Interserve engaged in a “sustained campaign of character assassination against the Claimant alleging fraud; bank forgery and other crimes; including threats to murder a business associate; of being psychotic; pathological; threatening; despicable; disreputable; deceitful; and a cheat.”

Arrington responded by writing:

My response – the same thing I told him in February – write a post apologizing to the employees he lied to and cheated, and take the blame like a real adult. My advice was that the Internet tends to forgive everything over time, particularly to those who ask for it.

via TechCrunch Arrington faces UK arrest – Network World.