The Federal Trade Commission has relieved Limewire, a p2p file-sharing service from an investigation regarding security and privacy issues as it “determined not to recommend any further action by the Commission at this time.” This is pretty good news for the software company, as they've taken the necessary measures to appease some of the FTC's requests. Brief background: Users who install Limewire are said to have all their files, private and sensitive, available to the network, some of which are government documents that contain confidential military information. Also, users have their personal information at risk from identity theft.  This impending issue caused an upheaval with regulatory officials, and caught the attention of

A recent lawsuit out of California names Facebook a defendant in a class action lawsuit alleging that their advertising model misappropriates the likeness and names of teens who use the system. The lawsuit hinges on the fact that advertisements, while shown to everyone, can also be “Liked.” A function of Facebook where if a user appreciates something and wants their friends to be aware of their appreciation they click a button marked “Like” near the item. In almost every case, clicking “Like” republishes that element in a message on the walls of networked friends—and, in the case of advertisements, the person who clicked “Like” becomes a vehicle for the exposure of that advertisement. PR Newswire fills us in on the c

Bandwidth is the basic foundation for Internet traffic as a connector to everything important in our lives. Whether it is basic bandwidth for connecting to family and friends, or a super fast highway for global reach and competitiveness in the business world, bandwidth constitutes the speed at which we connect as a global presence within the expanding sphere of Internet communication. Bandwidth: “defined as the speed at which data is transferred over an electronic communication device like a server. The units of measurement are based on the maximum transfer rate and measured in either Kbps or Mbps.” Kbps: (kilobits per second) – “A measure of 1000 bits of information transferred per second.”  Mbps: (Megabits per seco

Do no evil is a phrase Google reiterates in its language, culture and brand. The company’s cheerful, primary colors and dedication to solving everything with an algorithm has been the face of Google from the very beginning. But a swelling movement against its net-neutrality statement this week has led many to question Google’s mantra. In an earlier post we warned Google to not be evil, noting its position as representing all that use the Internet in its decision-making (and deal-making) process. After speculation around Google’s partnership with Verizon running rampant last week, the two companies released a statement yesterday, assuring the world of its support of the open web. Yet the statement seemed contradictory in that it

Google and Verizon may not be ending net neutrality today, but they have released a statement outlining their proposal regarding web access and the freedoms (for consumers and enterprises) that lie within. The gist: Google and Verizon are supporters of net neutrality, but they’re working jointly to devise a way for the two companies to work together on methods around delivery, access and all related business. From their statement: In October, our two companies issued a shared statement of principles on network neutrality. A few months later we submitted a joint filing to the FCC, and in an April joint op-ed our CEOs discussed their common interest in an open Internet. Since that time, we have listened to all sides of the deba

Robert Scoble just put out a thought-provoking video on his personal blog detailing the frightening bi-polar personality of US immigration policy. The three participants of note in the discussion Robert chronicles are Aye Moah, a brilliant Burmese UX designer who came to America based purely on her ability to do maths, Ronald Mannak, a European tech entrepreneur, and Chamillionaire, an American rapper-come-entrepreneur. [Aye] grew up in one of the poorest countries on earth. She shouldn’t have many opportunities. Yet here she was, talking with me at a Silicon Valley party after the Always On conference. The route she took? She went to MIT. How did she get in? Was one of the top-scoring students in Burma. One of the top 10, in fact.

There’s nothing like bringing back a classic, something that Democrat senators Jay Rockefeller and John Kerry are trying this week at online privacy hearings this week in the Senate. I almost missed the news, but caught the recap this morning from Frank Reed over at Marketing Pilgrim: Don’t think that just because Facebook has managed to not completely trample people’s privacy as of late that there is not more activity around the subject. In fact, forces in Washington, this time the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), are speaking at ‘hearings’ that are looking into this issue right now with talk of a “do not track” list. This is not the first time the subject has been raised (2007 it got some attention) but in light of re

VentureBeat tried to answer the increasingly common question of where ownership of UGC falls today in their “Ask the Attorney” column. Their answer? A broad answer is that you own it and, most likely, the service upon which you post it owns it too.  The key question is: What terms of use does that service require? In practice, if you want to submit content to any site, then you will have to give the company behind the site the right to your content. They reached a very similar conclusion to our own Glenn Manishin, when he published a very detailed background and answer to the question in his “Laws of Social Media” series. Putting all these basic principles together yields precisely the answer posed for social media le

Today the US Supreme Court ruled on a Nevada case involving constitutionality of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley (Sarbox) accounting regulations pertaining to appointments to the independent public company accounting oversight board. The Supreme Court ruled that the Sarbox regulations or law remains intact, however the process or controls around the oversight board must change. My interpretation and perspective from reading a few different reports is that Sarbox as you know and love (or hate) it is essentially still intact. However what has changed or will be is that individual board members can now be removed or at least in an easier manner. Instead of the request to strike down the Sarbox regulations, the Supreme Court instead appears to have

Call it progress, or a porn ghetto. Either way, the new xxx "weblight district" is under foot, thanks to a vote by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers last week. The group decided to allow the Florida-based ICM Registry to create a special dot-xxx suffix for adult entertainment sites. And regardless of what you think about it, the porn industry is actually upset. From The New York Times, "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers on Friday agreed to move forward on a long-standing proposal from a Florida company to create a specialized dot-xxx suffix for adult entertainment Web sites. But the plan upset much of the adult entertainment industry. It joined hands with religious groups in lobbying a