May 30th 2008
If a group of kids can control hundreds of millions of machines for sending spam, shouldn’t security experts with billions of dollars from the NSA, MI6, or CSEC be tempted to do the same? Why wait to try to catch data to going over the wires when botnet programs could let agents review the data […]
May 28th 2008
The Federal Trade Commission has issued new provisions under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. These are additional definitions and adjustments to rules, and do not significantly extend these anti-spam regulations for most marketers. The new provisions address the following main themes:
May 27th 2008
Boing Boing has a linking policy: “After years of making fun of ‘linking policies’ that set out the terms under which a website can be linked to, BoingBoing has decided to create a linking policy of our own. Here it is — now, abide by it!
May 24th 2008
I’m struck by the visible and creative use of the Internet by people in China responding to the Sichuan earthquake. Then again, so are Western technophiles, who seem overheated about how their favorite application was used in response to this disaster. Rather than attempt to synthesize something that’s as yet unfinished, I’d like to share […]
May 23rd 2008
Prosecutors in Los Angeles have brought criminal charges against Lori Drew, the 44-year-old woman who was the focus of outrage around the tragic death of Megan Meier. Since there is no law against cyberbullying, the prosecutors construed that when Drew registered under a false name, she was essentially making unauthorized use of MySpace’s computer system […]
May 22nd 2008
A U.S. District Judge in Los Angeles has ruled that “spam king” Sanford Wallace and his accomplice Walter Rines are liable to pay MySpace $230 million in damages. This is significant both for the verdict’s size, and because the spam happened entirely within MySpace rather than through traditional ISP based email.
May 21st 2008
ISP Charter Communications is about to start spying on its customers surfing habits in order to build profiles for advertisers. Charter is partnering with a company called NebuAd, which provides the packet-sniffing technology that knows which websites you’re visiting. And though Charter claims its customers can opt out, a review of NebuAd’s patent indicates otherwise. […]
May 20th 2008
Floyd Abrams published an Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal describing how plaintiffs seeking to suppress protected speech in the US are gaining libel judgements in England. Rachel Ehrenfeld’s book Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Funded and How to Stop It, had sold only 23 copies in England. But that was enough for a UK […]
May 20th 2008
Hello from Toronto, where its light until almost 10pm. The good people at ExactTarget invited me to join their 1:1 marketing conference as a speaker on email marketing best practices. I’ll be singing the praises of email newsletters as a means to personally address customers while generating and nurturing leads.
May 19th 2008
Whenever a governmental body makes a statement that voices support for an ethical principle, you should look for the real underlying reason: money. In a recent meeting, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors stated that copyright infringement “substantially interferes with the interest of the public in the quality of life and community peace, lawful […]
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