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Rather Than Blaming Twitter, NY Police Using It To Track Gang Activity

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 22:34:00 PST

We've seen way too many stories of law enforcement officials blaming online tools like Craigslist, rather than using them proactively to help fight crime. Luckily, it appears that more and more folks in law enforcement are smart enough to know better. Robert Ring alerts us to a story about how gangs in New York are using Twitter to communicate and coordinate, but rather than blaming Twitter, the NYC Police Department is using it as a handy tool to find out what's going on:

Investigators are monitoring the traffic in hopes of sweeping up gangbangers before the bloodshed - and searching Twitter after attacks for clues.

"It is another tool ... just like old phone records," a police source said. "We can go through them [messages] to track these guys."

Nice to see these tools being used properly by law enforcement, rather than yet another public freakout over the wrong thing.

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Neat Trick: Rogers Offers Online Video And Broadband Cap To Punish You For Using It

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 20:34:13 PST

Two separate initiatives by cable companies are coming together in conflict. We've seen how many cable companies are trying to set up video portals that will let subscribers to cable TV get access to the same content online, as a weak attempt to reduce churn of consumers dumping cable altogether and concentrating on online options. But, at the same time, they're also looking to implement broadband caps with high overage fees. Those two concepts are shown together with Rogers offering both a video portal and low metered caps with high overage fees. So your incentive is to not use the video portal (which apparently is limited in the first place). How is that going to reduce the churn? It seems like a far better option is to just go with another provider that actually focuses on adding value rather than limiting it. Too bad there's so little competition up in Canada. Ahhh... that explains things, now, doesn't it?

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Students Blocked From Publishing School Paper, Given 2 Hours To Write New Stories Or Fail

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 18:32:53 PST

It's great what we teach our kids these days. Some students at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, put together their student paper, but the administration apparently freaked out because there were articles about drinking, smoking and teen pregnancy (you know, stuff that's actually relevant to students). So they blocked the publication of the paper and gave the students two hours to write new stories or receive failing grades (found via Poynter). Nice of them, right? The administration claims they just delayed the paper "to provide more time for editing and layout," though that's quite a different story than what the students are saying. We keep seeing stories like this, and at some point you have to wonder why more student publications don't just set up shop online, totally outside of the school district, and just publish what they want?

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US Visa Process Making It Even More Difficult For Foreign Musicians To Tour Here

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 16:52:00 PST

A couple of years ago, we noted that US Immigration was making life difficult for touring musicians by changing the way they enforced the visas commonly used by musicians. Specifically, the usual visa required proof of popularity -- but had no systems in place to account for popularity via the internet. This resulted in various well known musicians (including, by the way, our friend Lily Allen) being barred from making expected appearances in the US. It appears this sort of thing is happening again. The law still hasn't changed, but US Immigration has again increased the strictness in how it interprets the existing laws for foreign musicians, leading some top acts to be barred from entering the country -- or just increasing the bureaucracy they need to go through. For many foreign acts, touring the US is quite important in attracting more attention.

The article discusses how this is harming some acts that have built a lot of buzz or won awards... but then have had trouble capitalizing on that with a US tour. It's kind of amusing that just as we hear from politicians talking about the importance of helping musicians with more and more draconian copyright laws, they're making it that much more difficult for them to tour, build their reputation and earn a living. The next time an American politician discusses the need for more draconian copyright laws to help musicians, perhaps a reporter can ask them about this particular issue as well.

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Google Bug On Document Sharing Highlights Communication Problems

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 15:42:00 PST

Hopefully this is just a big mistake, but Slashdot points us to a bunch of Google Docs users complaining that Google is blocking them from sharing their documents claiming "inappropriate content," even in cases where the content is clearly fine, such as college class notes and homework assignments. Even assuming this is just some sort of bug, the bigger issue seems to be Google's lack of response, despite the issue cropping up weeks ago. This charge has been raised about Google in the past, and it's only going to become more important. As more and more people rely on Google for services, the company is going to need to improve its handling of customer service issues and communication.

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School Tech Guy Fired For Running SETI@Home?

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 14:42:59 PST

SETI@Home, one of the earlier and (still) largest distributed computing projects was launched more than 10 years ago, and it's still pretty common for lots of folks (geeks and non-geeks alike) to run the screensavers and work through the mounds of SETI data. That's why it's a bit surprising to find a News.com writeup by Chris Matyszczyk, about a guy fired for running the software written up as if SETI@Home were some sort of wacky new project by UFO enthusiasts. Basically, it sounds like the guy installed the SETI@Home software on a bunch of computers at the school, and that upset school officials. This isn't the first time we've seen this sort of thing. Five years ago, we wrote about a similar firing of an employee by the state of Ohio.

Still, if you look at the details of this particular firing the situation seems a lot different than the News.com report suggests (or than even the article from AZCentral suggests). There's actually a criminal investigation going on, but the bigger issue (even though it's downplayed in the article) is the fact that the school district claims the guy stole 18 computers from the district and had them in his home (turned up by a warrant). That seems a lot more understandable as an offense leading to termination. Separately, it appears he did not complete his job duties -- such as installing firewall software that never showed up (oddly, the article never actually defines the guy's job title, but it sounds like some sort of IT job). The whole SETI@Home stuff just seems exaggerated. This includes the claim, made in the article, that the guy's actions cost the school district between $1.2 million and $1.6 million. While some of this may be tied to the missing computers, the article implies that much of it is from running SETI@Home, which the school claims was a burden on the computer systems. While he probably shouldn't have been running the software on those machines without permission, that alone is hardly that big of a deal. It seems like most people at the school district and the writers of the articles linked above don't understand how SETI@Home works, which seems to create an awful lot of confusion.

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Sprint Revealed GPS Data To Authorities 8 Million Times In The Last Year [Updated]

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 13:39:13 PST

This seems too insane to be true, but the EFF points us to a report, based on a Freedom of Information Act request, that claims Sprint provided law enforcement with GPS location data a staggering 8 million times in the last year. Sprint apparently set up some sort of portal that made such requests easier, and it sounds like law enforcement took advantage of that in a major way. The report also notes that this information should have been disclosed to Congress, under a 1999 law, but the Justice Department has ignored the law for the past five years. The rest of the report also looks at some other concerning factors, such as the fact that the government seems to regularly get all sorts of info from service providers, with little oversight. On top of that, it explains why so many service providers agree to it: they charge the government for such info, and it's quite lucrative. As such, they actually have the incentive to encourage the government to ask for more information and to deliver it to them as quickly and efficiently as possible. However, you have to wonder how so many requests are being made with such little oversight -- and how often this means the process is abused to spy on individuals with no legal basis. Update: Sprint is now trying to explain this by saying that the numbers represent number of "pings" and that can include thousands of pings per a single investigation. In a single investigation, once law enforcement has a court order, it can check someone's location every 3 minutes for up to 60 days -- and that's what made the number so inflated.

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How Georgia Wonder Turned Lack Of Cash To Record Into An Opportunity

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 12:44:37 PST

Earlier this year, we wrote about the UK music act Georgia Wonder, who was thrilled to be listed as one of the "most pirated" musical acts out there -- recognizing the power of good promotion. Since then, we've watched with interest how the group has continued to really interact with fans and use new tools and new marketing ideas to get heard and build a following. Rose M. Welch alerts us to the band's latest smart move. As they wanted to record a new album, they realized (as plenty of others have) that it's expensive to record an album -- buying studio time, equipment and instruments. So they did something different. They teamed up with a local music equipment shop, called Nevada Music and worked out a deal:

Both during store hours and after the store closes each night, they'll be recording their next album dubbed "Made In Nevada" using all the gear the store has on sale.

This benefits everyone. The band gets access to all the equipment and instruments they need, plus they get added attention for doing something cool and new. The store also gets a nice benefit in additional attention and marketing for itself and its products. What's cool about this is that it's yet another different way of going about things. One of the most frustrating responses we hear whenever we show examples of cool things that musicians are doing -- is people saying "but everyone can't do this." But that's the whole point. Musicians can keep coming up with cool different things to do. Frankly, the idea that they can't come up with cool ideas is insulting. These are some of the most creative people around, and given the ability to express that creativity, it's amazing what they come up with.

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That Mythical 'Information Wants To Be Free' Crowd

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 11:44:00 PST

Jay Rosen is doing a brilliant job highlighting the rather silly trend among folks who think they're "debunking" the economics of free to build up complete strawmen often identified as "the information wants to be free crowd." However, as Rosen notes, none of those critics ever links to anyone in particular or defines who they're arguing against or what it is they actually said. There's a good reason for that, of course. Usually those folks are arguing against a myth. They don't want to argue against the actual economics or what folks who understand where free fits into the wider economic landscape are actually saying. They want to throw up a punching bag (usually something along the lines of "everything must be free!") which they can knock down without anyone punching back. But that's not because they're right, but because they're arguing against a myth. No one claims everything (even information) must be free. Most (and in this group I include folks like Kevin Kelly, Chris Anderson, Stewart Brand and others) are simply pointing to the basic economic forces on information. If you don't understand what those forces are, then you will be overwhelmed by them. But simply claiming that any one in that group is saying that everything must be free is flat out wrong.

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Rupert Murdoch: Feds Should Stay Out Of News Business, Except, Of Course To Smack Down Google For Sending Me Traffic

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 10:43:43 PST

Rupert Murdoch stopped by at an FTC workshop on the future of journalism to say that the federal government should "stay out" of regulating the journalism business. Except, in the same speech he said exactly the opposite. What he meant was that he didn't want the government to get in the business of funding journalism. Yet, in the very same speech he did say that the government shouldn't allow Google to link to his news stories, calling it "theft" yet again. Again, he didn't explain why he hasn't blocked Google if it's actually "theft." Not surprisingly, compounding these contradictions, he failed to mention (or perhaps recognize?) that the sites he owns do plenty of aggregating themselves. I've been told, however, that Arianna Huffington is making that point, though I wonder if Rupert stuck around to hear it. Update: Huffington has published her speech, which does a very nice job making the point.

Other points made by Murdoch include the bizarre claim that "advertising is dead" as a model to support journalism. You would think that someone who has lived through a bunch of ad market cycles wouldn't extrapolate from just a short period, but that appears to be what Murdoch is doing. About the only other explanation for all of this is that he's simply trying to confuse and throw off both the competition and the federal government -- but at some point someone should directly call him on his various contradictions and confusion.

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If You Gain Unauthorized Access To A Character In A Virtual World, Is It Theft?

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 09:30:00 PST

Well, here we go again. For years we've questioned the wisdom of using real world laws to deal with issues within virtual worlds. You begin to open up quite the Pandora's Box of problems. If it's okay to charge someone for theft of virtual goods in a virtual world, what do you do if "theft" is a part of the game? And then does killing another character in a virtual world become "murder"? These issues are coming up again as Slashdot points out that a guy in the UK has been arrested for "robbery" of a player in the online world RuneScape. In this case, the arrested guy used a phishing scheme to get access to the username and password, making it similar to a story from two years ago involving "stolen goods" in Habbo Hotel that involved a similar "hacking" of an account.

But, again, it seems questionable to call this a robbery. Why not just charge the guy with violation of whatever laws there are against phishing or fraud, rather than robbery. These sorts of "robberies" can and probably should be dealt with directly in the virtual worlds themselves, where game administrators should be able to just "make things whole." Instead of calling it a robbery, why not focus on the actual crime of phishing, rather than the questionable "crime" of "robbery" of another's character.

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Shooting Victim Sues Google Over Search Results On His Name

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 08:30:00 PST

sinsi alerts us to a bizarre lawsuit in Australia where shooting victim Michael Trkulja is suing Google, claiming the search engine has some liability for his getting shot. The reasoning? Apparently searches on his name would take you to pages suggesting that Trkulja was involved in organized crime operations. It doesn't appear that he has any other info linking his shooting to this particular webpage or to the fact that the shooter may have done a Google search. It also does not appear (at least from the article here) that the guy is blaming the website in question -- just Google for leading people to it. Not sure what sorts of laws there are in Australia concerning such liability, but it's hard to think of a scenario under which this lawsuit should make sense under any legal system.

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Australian Operator Optus Deliberately Blocking Android Paid Apps

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 07:20:00 PST

A few folks have sent in the news that Australian mobile operator Optus appears to be completely blocking access to paid apps for owners of Android phones. Apparently people have been complaining about this for a while, and Optus has been mostly silent on the matter, only stating:

"Optus is currently working with Google to provide an Android application store to our customers, and we are optimistic it will be available soon."

Except, of course, it shouldn't require any permission from Optus at all -- which is leading to reasoned speculation that Optus is blocking access to paid apps in the Android app store because Optus wants a cut of the revenue. This is typical of mobile carriers who keep wanting to believe that they're the tollbooth everyone needs to pay. Instead, the more likely result is just to drive mobile phone users to other carriers.

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Helping Everyone Become An IT Innovator

Michael Ho — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 06:30:00 PST

This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com. Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.

As many of our readers already know, we've been producing several topical conversations on a variety of subjects via the Insight Community, and we'd like to introduce our newly sponsored site, IT Innovation, brought to you by Sun Microsystems and Intel. (You may have missed the subtle new 'IT Innovation' link added to the top of our page.) First and foremost, the goal of this effort for us here at Techdirt is to create interesting and useful content for our readers in the realm of server hardware and datacenter management.

We'll be covering trends in datacenters and skills for IT managers -- and asking the Insight Community for its input on generating relevant insights for future conversations. And as with any natural conversation, we're not 100% sure where the topics will lead because the ideas will develop and evolve as we discuss them. But we'll start with current trends, as well as far off predictions, advice and tips for IT managers, business tools, and try to delve deeper into the subjects that resonate with the community participants. If you're already a member of the Insight Community, you can contribute your thoughts on the datacenter upgrade process. If you're not already a member, you can join now.

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Should There Be Punishment For Bogus 'Pre-Settlement' Letters?

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 05:22:00 PST

We've recently seen efforts to ramp up the system of "pre-settlement" letters as a way to "profit" off of file sharing. The scheme works by having a company that either holds the copyrights to certain works or has merely licensed them for this purpose put those files online and then see who is downloading them. That's the simplest version (though, of questionable legality since if the copyright holder itself is putting the content online, you can raise questions about whether or not the sharing is really unauthorized). Some others in the space don't actually put their content online themselves, but try to find IP addresses of those who are sharing the content, and then sending those users "pre-settlement" letters, in the hopes that many people just pay up, rather than fighting the letters (or, more likely, ignoring them).

Of course, one of the big problems with such a system is that those sending such letters have very little incentive (if any) to actually verify that unauthorized file sharing has happened. They want to cast as wide a net as possible and send out as many letters as possible to as many people as possible. It's a pure numbers game. And, for that reason, plenty of false positives are identified. Now, plenty of people reasonably point out that IP addresses are not indicative of individuals, and there are problems with relying solely on IP addresses -- but those problems become even bigger when you're dealing with folks who don't understand how BitTorrent actually works. That activity leads to claims of copyright infringement by networked laser printers.

Over at Freedom to Tinker, computer science professor Mike Freedman discusses how the popular CoralCDN has been getting hundreds of pre-settlement letters because one of these companies doesn't seem to do even the slightest verification of whether or not an IP address is actually involved in sharing content, and misinterprets the data it has received (despite the self-supported claim that "The information in this notification is accurate"). Of course, since the "punishment" for such things is slight to non-existent, the company in question (in this case, "Video Protection Alliance") has no incentive to improve its process. But it presents a real cost to Freedman, who helps run CoralCDN:

Our personal experience with DMCA takedown notices is that network operators are suitably afraid of litigation. Many will pull network access from machines as soon as a complaint is received, without any further verification or demonstrative network logs. In fact, many operators also sought "proof" that we weren't running BitTorrent or engaging in file sharing before they were willing to restore access. We'll leave the discussion about how we might prove such a negative to another day, but one can point to the chilling effect that such notices have had, when users are immediately considered guilty and must prove their innocence.

At some point, shouldn't we start to consider serious sanctions against those issuing not just bogus DMCA takedown notices, but then also using such notices to demand "pre-settlement" payments from individuals who may not realize their legal rights and may just pay up?

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If You're Looking For The Open Source Business Model, You're Looking For The Wrong Thing

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 03:30:00 PST

Every so often we see a similar article to the one penned recently by Ashlee Vance in the NY Times, bemoaning the lack of "open source business model" success stories. Now, Vance is a top notch reporter and does great work for the NY Times (as he did for The Register before), but these kinds of articles seem to miss the point. They go looking for "open source" company success stories, and find that most open source software companies don't end up doing very well, and the few that do okay end up selling out to other companies (MySQL, XenSource, SpringSource) and conclude that, outside of perhaps RedHat, "open source" isn't a very good business. But that misses the point. Open source software, by itself, shouldn't be much of a business. Just as music isn't much of a business by itself, but it can be a huge component of a larger business, open source software is part of what helps many other businesses.

So, while Vance dismisses the fact that companies like Google and IBM rely tremendously on using open source software to be the foundation of their multi-billion dollar businesses, it's time to recognize that those are open source business models. Just as we talk about how the new music ecosystem involves using music to make other things much more valuable, the "open source business model" is using open source software to make other things much more valuable. The companies that haven't gotten very far trying to sell open source software are in that spot because they don't understand open source business models themselves, and seem to think that the focus should remain on selling software, rather than using the software to make other things more valuable. While Vance dismisses companies like Google and IBM using open source software as "pawns," it's time to recognize that that is the most reasonable way to build a business on open source work. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. It's helping build tremendous businesses that have a huge impact on the world economy.

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Virgin Media Using Deep Packet Inspection To Spy On Your Internet Usage For Hollywood

Mike Masnick — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 01:20:23 PST

Last year, there were early reports that ISP Virgin Media in the UK would become a copyright cop for the entertainment industry and start kicking file sharers offline if they were accused of infringement. While Virgin later denied this, the company did send letters threatening to kick users offline anyway. And, now, reports are coming out that Virgin Media is starting to use controversial deep packet inspection technology to spy on users to see if they're sharing any copyrighted works. As the article notes: "It's the equivalent of the Royal Mail opening every parcel to see if there's a CD inside, and making a note if there isn't a receipt in there too."

While this is just a test, and the information is being aggregated in a supposedly anonymous way just to judge the extent of the problem, there are a bunch of issues with such claims. First, there is no such thing as an anonomyzed dataset. Second, there are some pretty serious privacy questions raised by this. In the US, the use of Deep Packet Inspection for looking at what users do has been frowned upon, but in the UK it's been deemed not so bad by the legal system (however, the wider EU doesn't agree with the UK on this position). No matter how you look at it, it does seem quite extreme for your ISP to carefully look at everything you do online. In the end, of course, this will only serve to drive up the demand for encryption technology.

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That Was Fast: New Detroit Newspaper Lasted An Entire Week Before Shutting Down

Mike Masnick — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:16:00 PST

A few weeks ago, some publishing industry veterans announced plans to start a new daily newspaper in Detroit, a city that has seen its daily newspapers significantly scale back the production of the paper product. This resulted in some reasonable confusion over how the plan could possibly make sense. There was little indication of a plan to do anything different to try to offer a better product. Instead, it looked like just an attempt to jump in with a product not particularly different than the ones that had already stumbled in the same market -- but without the brand recognition or built up loyalty. So, it should come as little surprise that the new paper appears to have folded after just a single week of operation, though the publishers insist it's just a temporary "bump" due to (merely) a lack of advertising, distribution or timely printing operations. Seems like there are some kinks to work out.

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Local UK Newspaper Chain Tries A Paywall

Mike Masnick — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:33:00 PST

Slowly, but surely, we're seeing some regional newspapers try out a paywall. We've already seen Newsday, on Long Island, put up a paywall, but it's more about reducing churn than actually getting people to pay (and early reports are that not many are paying). Now, as a bunch of readers sent in, Johnston Press, in the UK has announced a paywall as well, asking £5 for three months of access (which certainly beats Newsday's ridiculous $5/week plan. I'm glad that some newspapers are actually trying this out, as it was getting a bit tiresome hearing them all threaten to do so without any actual action. Now we can actually see what happens. Of course, my opinion on the matter has been clear. I think it will be a lot more difficult to get people to pay than these publishers believe, and it will be a lot more expensive to manage than they believe. Also, the writers for the papers behind paywalls might not like the fact that no one knows who they are any more. At the same time, it will only serve to open up the competitive market for others to come in at a better price point (i.e., "free") and scoop up a significant percentage of the advertisers who are seeking to reach a larger audience.

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The Uselessness Of Amazon's Announcement That Kindle Is Its Best Selling Product

Mike Masnick — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:49:06 PST

A few folks have sent over some version of the story that the Kindle is outselling every other product on Amazon. Of course, that's somewhat meaningless, as the folks at Gizmodo smartly point out. Because you can only get the Kindle via Amazon, and that makes the number completely different than other products:

When Amazon tells you that the Kindle is the highest-selling product on Amazon, you're supposed to think of it as you'd think of anything else: as a strong, reliable metric in gauging how well a product is doing in general. The thing is, there is no "in general" for the Kindle. There is only Amazon. Anyone who wants a Kindle and doesn't normally shop at Amazon has to make an exception. Anyone who wants a Kindle and doesn't normally shop online has to make an exception. The Kindle didn't outsell the iPod Touch--not even close.

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