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Tim Wu (Slate): "Evil? The alleged Google-Verizon deal that's endangering net neutrality."
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 7, 2010

Aug. 7, 2010

Slate Evil? The alleged Google-Verizon deal that's endangering net neutrality. By Tim Wu Posted Friday, Aug. 6, 2010, at 4:12 PM ET ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On Wednesday, the /New York Times/ reported that Google and Verizon <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/technology/05secret.html> "are nearing an agreement that could ... speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege." While both Google and Verizon quickly denied the /NYT/ report <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38576914/>, the newspaper says it's standing by its story <http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100805-724063.html>. If the /Times/ is right, this content-for-cash scheme would be the greatest scandal in Google's history. We could term it "Internet Payola <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola>," after the practice of record labels paying radio stations to play their songs. The plan would probably work like this: In exchange for payment or some other mutually beneficial considerations, Verizon would give special priority to sites like Google.com and YouTube, making them run faster than competitors like Yahoo.com and Hulu. Such a payola scheme would violate the precept of net neutrality, the belief that all packets that travel over the Internet should be treated equally. It would be a betrayal of the public's trust from a firm that has long sold itself as a fair broker and has tirelessly tempered its growing power with its advocacy of "open networking." It would also reveal the need for immediate federal action on net neutrality and continued oversight over all corporate monopolies that control speech and commerce. How could Google be moving away from its "open networking" values? The people I've spoken to at Google claim that no such movement is afoot---that the /New York Times/ story is "wrong." In contrast, another source with knowledge of the discussions says the /Times/ story is "generally accurate." [...] Continua qui: http://www.slate.com/id/2262952/

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[Schmidt] se guardiamo la tuamail possiamo predire dove andrai
by Stefano Quintarelli Aug. 6, 2010

Aug. 6, 2010

quando si dice "tenere un basso profilo"... http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_ceo_schmidt_people_arent_ready_… -- www.reeplay.it www.eximia.it

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TR: "Dissent Made Safer"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 5, 2010

Aug. 5, 2010

Non nuovo, scusate, ma me l'ero perso. Rilevante anche per lo studio di Silvia Bisi (NEXA Fellow) sull'anonimato online. jc TECHNOLOGY REVIEW May/June 2009 *Dissent Made Safer* *How anonymity technology could save free speech on the Internet.* By David Talbot "Sokwanele" means "enough is enough" in a certain Bantu dialect. It is also the name of a Zimbabwean pro-democracy website whose bloggers last year published accounts of atrocities by Robert Mugabe's regime and posted Election Day updates describing voter intimidation and apparent ballot stuffing. You can visit Sokwanele's "terror album" and see photographs: of a hospitalized 70-year-old woman who'd been beaten and thrown on her cooking fire (she later died, the site says); of firebombed homes; of people with deep wounds carved into their backs. You can find detailed, frequently updated maps describing regional violence and other incidents. You will be confronted with gruesome news, starkly captioned: "Joshua Bakacheza's Body Found." Because this horrific content is so readily available, it is easy to overlook the courage it took to produce it. The anonymous photographers and polling-station bloggers who uploaded the Sokwanele material remain very much in danger. In a place like Zimbabwe, where saying the wrong thing can get you killed or thrown in prison on treason charges, you take precautions: you're careful about whom you talk to; you're discreet when you enter a clinic to take pictures. And when you get to the point of putting your information on the Internet, you need protection from the possibility that your computer's digital address will be traced back to you. Maybe, at that point, you use Tor. [...] Continua qui: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22427/?a=f

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NY Times: "Google Will Sell Brand Names as Keywords in Europe"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 5, 2010

Aug. 5, 2010

August 4, 2010 Google Will Sell Brand Names as Keywords in Europe By MATTHEW SALTMARSH <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/matthew_saltma…> PARIS --- The Internet giant Google <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/google_inc/index.html…> said on Wednesday that it would change its search policy for most of Europe to allow advertisers to buy and use as keywords terms that have been trademarked by others. Previously, brand owners could file a trademark complaint with Google to prevent third-party ads from being returned alongside the results of a search of a trademarked name, like Louis Vuitton or Prada. The decision will be effective Sept. 14 and extends to the rest of Europe changes that were made in Britain and Ireland in 2008. In the United States and Canada, Google has been using the policy since 2004. Google's move stems from a decision by the European Court of Justice <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/europea…> in March. The court broadly ruled that Google had respected trademark law by allowing advertisers to bid for keywords corresponding to third-party trademarks. [...] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/technology/05google.html

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Tribunale di Messina - 700 cpc - ordinanza di riattivazione account eBay
by Marco Berte Aug. 3, 2010

Aug. 3, 2010

Nella speranza di farvi cosa gradita, allego la recente ordinanza del Tribunale di Messina. saluti a tutti e buone vacanze Marco

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Salon: "Why I like vicious, anonymous online comments"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 3, 2010

Aug. 3, 2010

*Salon.com *Tuesday, Aug 3, 2010 09:01 ET Why I like vicious, anonymous online comments As news outlets push back against trolls, we may be losing something: A glimpse of the real America By Matt Zoller Seitz Three months ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a couple who'd had trouble conceiving a child finally succeeded, and announced the impending arrival of twins with a cleverly edited and utterly harmless YouTube video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snp3rHDHwPg> that turned the final attack on the Death Star in "Star Wars, Episode IV" into a cheesy metaphor for conception. ("Torpedoes away!") Most of the comments were of the expected variety: generic congratulations and cornball "Star Wars" jokes. Then there were the others. "'Thanks for the fuck, should do it again sometime,' should be the ending to this dumb video," wrote one commenter. "Holy fuck was this gay," wrote another. "This is fucking stupid," wrote another. "OH YOU ARE HAVING BABIES? YOU MEAN YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING THAT BILLIONS OF PEOPLE HAVE DONE THROUGHOUT HISTORY? Big fucking deal. I fucking hate kids." The protective force field of anonymity -- or pseudonymity -- brings out the worst in some people. They say things they would never say in the presence of flesh-and-blood human beings. [...] Continua qui: http://www.salon.com/life/internet_culture/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/20…

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Reverse engineering Europe's PSI re-use rules
by Cristiana Sappa Aug. 3, 2010

Aug. 3, 2010

Dear All, This is to inform you that Marc de Vries, team member of EVPSI research project and involved in LAPSI thematic network, has published "Reverse engineering Europe's PSI re-use rules - towards an integrated conceptual framework for PSI re-use", which is an in depth and analytical consideration of the factors constituting legal environment impacting on European PSI re-use and the interconnection of these factors, thus providing a conceptual framework that will allow for enhanced understanding of this complex legal labyrinth. The article is available on both LAPSI and EVPSI websites (see links here below): https://www.lapsi-project.eu/lapsifiles/Reverse_engineering_PSI_re-use_regu… http://www.evpsi.org/evpsifiles/Reverse_engineering_PSI_re-use_regulatory_f… Kind Regards, Cristiana

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NY Times: "So-Called 'Digital Natives' Not Media Savvy, New Study Shows"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 1, 2010

Aug. 1, 2010

July 29, 2010 *So-Called 'Digital Natives' Not Media Savvy, New Study Shows* By SARAH PEREZ of ReadWriteWeb "In Google we trust." That may very well be the motto of today's young online users, a demographic group often dubbed the "digital natives" due their apparent tech-savvy. Having been born into a world where personal computers were not a revolution, but merely existed alongside air conditioning, microwaves and other appliances, there has been (a perhaps misguided) perception that the young are more digitally in-tune with the ways of the Web than others. That may not be true, as it turns out. A new study coming out of Northwestern University, discovered that college students have a decided lack of Web savvy, especially when it comes to search engines and the ability to determine the credibility of search results. Apparently, the students favor search engine rankings above all other factors. The only thing that matters is that something is the top search result, not that it's legit. [...] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/07/29/29readwriteweb-so-c…

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IBL Briefing Paper: "L’intermediazione dei diritti d’autore"
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 31, 2010

July 31, 2010

Istituto Bruno Leoni Briefing Paper 18 luglio 2010 *L’intermediazione dei diritti d’autore * Diego Menegon http://brunoleonimedia.servingfreedom.net/BP/IBL_BP_89_SIAE.pdf Recensione di Guido Scorza: http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2010/07/30/sprechi-di-stato-il-caso-siae/45… juan carlos

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RedMonk: "The State of Open Source: Startup, Growth, Maturity or Decline?"
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 31, 2010

July 31, 2010

*The State of Open Source: Startup, Growth, Maturity or Decline?* Stephen O'Grady To judge by the vigorousness of the defense of its brand in recent weeks, it seems reasonably safe to conclude that open source can be evaluated as an institution in certain contexts. Granted, it's a problematic approach generally given the fact that open source is not a single organization, but rather a loose federation of many individual institutions each with its own goals, principles and philosophies. And yet for comparative purposes it occasionally is useful to look at the performance of open source as a whole relative to the commercial, closed source marketplace: itself a massive collection of independent entities, notably. The occasion of OSCON is, in many respects, an entirely arbitrary endpoint for a check on the health of the phenomenon it is ostensibly organized around. At the same time, as Tim puts it, OSCON is a relatively unique gathering of the tribes, which perhaps makes such a system-wide evaluation entirely appropriate. Depending on which particular business school text you pick up, you might have seen the organizational lifecycle stages described as some approximation of the following: 1. Startup 2. Growth 3. Maturity 4. Decline We must of course acknowledge the glaring impedance mismatch between mixed motive movements such as open source and profit-centric enterprises. Undoubtedly, open source will occasionally, even frequently, follow a different trajectory than will closed source alternatives. Still, if we may see differences between open and closed source businesses in how they experience those respective stages, it is nonetheless useful to ask the question: if open source did progress through a normal organizational lifecycle, where would it be today? [...] Continua qui: http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2010/07/27/open-source-oscon/

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