A blog entry from the NY Times: Discounting Bad Reviews
"Are
reviews of products and services on the Internet believable? Probably
not. In the latest case, a merchant offered a rebate in exchange for
getting a customer to revise a rating, but
it says that is not the way it usually does things."
A blog relating to Internet legal issues by Professor John Swinson, University of Queensland
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Advertising Financial Products on the Internet
ASIC has today released RG 234, Advertising financial products and advice services: Good practice guidance, to assist promoters in complying with their legal obligations when advertising financial products
and services. See the
media release - 14 February 2012, for further information and related material.
It applies to advertising on the Internet, via Twitter and the like. See section RG 234.115
and following.
What is interesting is that the Guidelines also apply to publishers (such as newspapers), Internet sites, and aggregators and comparison websites. See Section E and RG234.164 and following.
"While the primary responsibility for advertising material rests with the organisation placing the advertisement, the publisher may also have some responsibility for the content of an advertisement."
It applies to advertising on the Internet, via Twitter and the like. See section RG 234.115
and following.
What is interesting is that the Guidelines also apply to publishers (such as newspapers), Internet sites, and aggregators and comparison websites. See Section E and RG234.164 and following.
"While the primary responsibility for advertising material rests with the organisation placing the advertisement, the publisher may also have some responsibility for the content of an advertisement."
Online Privacy
A good comment: "The piracy of online privacy".
"Online privacy doesn’t exist. It was lost years ago. And not only was it taken, we’ve all already gotten used to it. Loss of privacy is a fundamental tradeoff at the very core of social networking. Our privacy has been taken in service of the social tools we so crave and suddenly cannot live without. If not for the piracy of privacy, Facebook wouldn’t exist. Nor would Twitter. Nor even would Gmail, Foursquare, Groupon, Zynga, etc. And yet people keep fretting about losing what’s already gone...."
"Online privacy doesn’t exist. It was lost years ago. And not only was it taken, we’ve all already gotten used to it. Loss of privacy is a fundamental tradeoff at the very core of social networking. Our privacy has been taken in service of the social tools we so crave and suddenly cannot live without. If not for the piracy of privacy, Facebook wouldn’t exist. Nor would Twitter. Nor even would Gmail, Foursquare, Groupon, Zynga, etc. And yet people keep fretting about losing what’s already gone...."
Law firm sues over bad online review about it
A Dallas law firm has filed a lawsuit seeking to learn the identity of a commenter calling himself “Ben” who posted a bad online review.
The Lenahan Law Firm claims defamation and seeks $50,000 in damages, Texas Lawyer reports. Partner Wes Black says the suit will allow the law firm to subpoena Google to learn the commenter’s identity.
Ben wrote in his comments on Google Review: "Bad experience with this firm. Don't trust the fake reviews here.” Ben also gave a bad review to an Oregon cleaning company and may have intended to post the negative review about a different law firm closer to home, the suit(PDF) says.
Black tells Texas Lawyer the Lenahan Law Firm gets most of its clients from searches, and the bad review won’t help. "The issue isn't trying to recover tons of money,” Black tells Texas Lawyer. “We just want the review down.”
See: ABA
New Google Privacy Policy
"We're getting rid of over 60 different
privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that's a
lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple
products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully
simple and intuitive experience across Google.
We believe this stuff matters, so please
take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of
Service
at http://www.google.com/policies. These
changes will take effect on March 1, 2012."
See story in Washington Post and CNN
Mr Kim Dotcom Arrested - No Need for SOPA?
With the recent arrest of Mr Kim Dotcom in NZ for online piracy, one wonders why new legislation such as the SOPA in the U.S. is needed.
See SMH and NZ Herald.
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a statement that the arrests set "a terrifying precedent. If the United States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim, what is next?""
Is it true that the president of Activation visiting Mr Dotcom this month, before his arrest? Why has it not been reported that members of the Black Eyed Peas were in Mr Dotcom's home when he was arrested, and have attended some of the NZ court proceedings?
See SMH and NZ Herald.
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a statement that the arrests set "a terrifying precedent. If the United States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim, what is next?""
Is it true that the president of Activation visiting Mr Dotcom this month, before his arrest? Why has it not been reported that members of the Black Eyed Peas were in Mr Dotcom's home when he was arrested, and have attended some of the NZ court proceedings?
Faceless Net Giants
A story in the Sydney Morning Herald: "Faceless Net Giants Writing Own Rule Books." If you upset Google (or Google Ireland -- the company that Google hides behind), they can just make you disappear.
"Australians use them more than any other websites and to many they have become essential services, oiling the wheels of life and commerce at the click of a mouse.
"Australians use them more than any other websites and to many they have become essential services, oiling the wheels of life and commerce at the click of a mouse.
But when Google or Facebook no longer wants you, it can be all but impossible to find out why, as internet entrepreneur Mark Bowyer and others have found to their cost.
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Earlier this year Google banned ads from his travel website, Rusty Compass, because it said the site "poses a risk of generating invalid activity".
Apple Apps
On Christmas morning, millions of people will unwrap new iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches — and immediately start downloading games and other applications for them. It is the biggest day of the year for app sales, which can mean big money for developers.
Flurry, a mobile analytics firm, estimated that in the period from Dec. 23 to Dec. 26 last year, 240 million applications were downloaded to Apple mobile devices, or about 20 percent of the total downloads for the month.
Source: NYTimes
Flurry, a mobile analytics firm, estimated that in the period from Dec. 23 to Dec. 26 last year, 240 million applications were downloaded to Apple mobile devices, or about 20 percent of the total downloads for the month.
Source: NYTimes
Brand xxx marks dot danger
The arrival of a generic top-level domain specifically for the porn industry has worrying implications and likely costs for many well known labels.
There is more trouble for brand owners brewing in cyberspace, with fundamental changes to the domain name system being implemented. In March 2011, following successful lobbying from the adult entertainment industry, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) agreed to allow the creation of a new generic top-level domain (gTLD) specifically for the adult entertainment industry. A gTLD is represented by the letters that come after the dot in a domain name, such as .com or .net.
The new adult entertainment top-level domain is .xxx and will come online next year.
This has implications for every business because brand names could be used in domain names for adult websites. For example, someone could register the new domain name sportsgirl.xxx or boostjuice.xxx for a porn website.
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