p2pnet World Headlines: Sept 7, 2010
EPIC Slams Google’s Privacy Moves InternetNews.com
Google has announced plans to roll out a more streamlined version of its privacy policies next month. The search giant insists the move to simplify its policies is designed to reduce “legalese” and make its policies more accessible to consumers. “To be clear, we aren’t changing any of our privacy practices; we want to make our policies more transparent and understandable,” Mike Yang, Google’s associate general counsel, said in a blog post Friday. But the move was blasted by privacy advocate Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). “The obvious problem with the revised privacy policy is that Google is now treating user data collection as part of an integrated platform. Previously, users could selectively reveal information to Google for the use of a particular service,” Rotenberg said in an email to InternetNews.com.
Pirate gamers face more sanctions BBC
The developers behind Halo: Reach have taken another step aimed at cracking down on pirates. Bungie says people illegally playing the game ahead of next week’s release will have credits they’ve earned wiped. Announcing the move on its website Bungie said “any credits you earn during this slim pre-Launch window are going to be summarily and systematically reset prior to launch”. “Don’t get too attached to any fancy new gear you have already acquired”.
Political Poster Frenzy in Sweden Radio Sweden
[For the first time] Sweden’s towns and cities are plastered with election propaganda at the moment. Every streetlight and fence has at least one party’s posters tied to it, all trying to get the voters attention. Some have pictures of the politicians, others catchy slogans. But how good are they really? Viggo Cavling is editor-in-chief at the advertising and PR magazine Resumé, he says that the posters should have a home-made look about them.
Google suggests Texas search concerns originate with Microsoft The Hill
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has opened a probe into whether Google ranks its search listings with an eye toward nicking the competition, the company announced in a Friday blog post that suggested the concerns have a major sponsor: Microsoft. In question is whether the world’s biggest search engine could be unfairly disadvantaging some companies by giving them a low ranking in free search listings and in paid ads that appear at the top of the page. That could make it tough for users to find those sites and might violate antitrust laws.
China’s Inspur To Launch Cloud Computing Operating System This Year ChinaTechNews
Chinese computing platform and information technology application solutions provider Inspur has published a strategy to promote its cloud computing business, and it plans to launch China’s first self-developed cloud computing operating system before the end of 2010. Wang Endong, senior vice president of Inspur, told local media that the development of Chinese cloud technologies needs to meet the actual demand in China where industry users account for over 50% of the Chinese digital information market. In regards to the dispersion of industry organizations and the closed data, industry users are people who most urgently need the cloud computing technologies.
Oracle Hires Ex-HP CEO Hurd as President as Phillips Departs Bloomberg News
Oracle Corp., the world’s second- biggest software company, hired former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd as a president and member of the board, reporting to CEO Larry Ellison. The company also said in a statement that Charles Phillips resigned as president and director. Hurd, who exited HP last month after the company said he violated standards of business conduct, will serve alongside Oracle President Safra Catz. At HP, Hurd more than tripled profit by cutting costs and expanding beyond the company’s core business of computers and printers. He oversaw an acquisition spree of more than $20 billion, letting the company branch out into services, networking equipment and smartphones. Oracle, which also has bulked up through takeovers, would draw on Hurd’s background blending software and hardware as it expands into server sales.
… and identi.ca
September, 2010
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September 7th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Well, damn. I just saw this (via LawandLit: twitter.com/LawandLit/status/23254210463):
CIPPIC Seeks Leave to Intervene in Crookes v. Newton
http://www.cippic.ca/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=468&cntnt01returnid=15
CIPPIC has filed its motion for leave to intervene before the Supreme Court of Canada in Crookes v. Newton, a case that will examine if posting a hyperlink can amount to defamation.
[...]
If granted leave, CIPPIC intends to argue that, while it recognizes the need to protect reputation in the online world, imposing liability on individuals for posting hyperlinks strikes the wrong balance and will chill free expression. The proposed rule will make it the responsibility of all individuals to ensure there is no defamatory content in any underlying content before linking to it. Yet the purpose of hyperlinks is to act as a reference to further, relevant information. By merely posting a hyperlink, an author neither adopts nor endorses the linked content. The author may not even be aware of the defamatory content. To force on Facebook or Twitter to make sure there is no defamatory content before posting a link or face potential law suits could dramatically change the way people communicate online.
Thumbs up to CIPPIC (and Jon for going through this hell).
September 7th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Today I was listening to the Howard Stern show and heard an anti-piracy(?) ad by kid rock. He admitted that he has a lot of money and that he can’t stop people from downloading music. The weird part of this propaganda was that he was ranting things such as if you want a new ipod, then steal it because apple has lots of money. He then went on to things like laptops because microsoft makes a ton of money. (The idiot doesn’t seem to realize that microshaft only makes the operating systems and not the hardware.) It continued to things like toyota cars because they aren’t american and stealing gas for those cars because the oil industry has vast amounts of wealth.
As I understand it this guy’s been pretty much used up by the big 4 and so he might so desperate for work that he plays the part of a brain-dead sock puppet. Someone really needs to point kid rock to this website for proper re-education.
September 7th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
kid rock? Music for mentally impaired!
Does he knows that the standard is Beethoven for the music and Byron for the lyric now?
I don’t believe that people still want to download his crap.
September 8th, 2010 at 12:47 am
I would download a car, damnit!