:: LNR Journalism ::

“Twitter users own their Tweets”: How Twitter wants to safeguard its own future

AllThingsD :: Twitter filed a motion to appeal a federal judge’s decision in ongoing litigation between the state of New York and Malcolm Harris, a Twitter user involved in last year’s Occupy Wall Street protests. The original decision passed down by Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. — which Twitter is fighting — ordered the company to hand over information on Harris’s Twitter activity during the protests. Twitter has opposed the request from the state of New York.

Twitter has to safeguard its own future - A report by Mike Isaac, allthingsd.com

Google reacts to Apple-Samsung verdict (and Kara Swisher translates)

Kara Swisher's report includes a "translation for those who don’t speak passive-aggressive."

AllThingsD :: Google — which went curiously silent on Friday after a blockbuster court win by rival Apple against its Android partner Samsung — finally found its voice today by releasing a statement about the patent infringement verdict.

A report by Kara Swisher, allthingsd.com

Accessible content: Web TV needs to have captions starting next month, the FCC rules

GigaOM :: Deaf and hard-of-hearing web video viewers have long pressed for a faster adoption of closed captioning, and it looks like the FCC got their back: Content also shown on TV will have to have closed captions when streamed online starting next month, the commission recently ruled.

A report by Janko Roettgers, gigaom.com

'Sponsored stories': Judge rejects Facebook ad settlement

paidContent :: A judge put the brakes on a legal settlement over “Sponsored Stories,” in which Facebook made users product pitchmen without their permission. The case is significant because it is the first in which a court calls out this type of settlement for giving nothing to users.

A report by Jeff John Roberts, paidcontent.org

Oracle, Google file list of paid journalists

paidContent :: Concerned that Google and Oracle were paying authors and journalists to influence a highly-publicized trial, a federal judge asked them to name names. Today, the parties filed their lists – Oracle names FOSS Patents blogger Florian Müller and Google names no one.

A report by Jeff John Roberts, paidcontent.org

Published on Scribd: 12-08-17, Oracle disclosures

Published on Scribd: 2012-08-17, Google Resp. Re: Aug 7 Order

Who's responsible and for what? German officials want Facebook to pay fines for illegal parties

Interesting case. It is only one click to invite your friends or the whole world. Technically it should be trivial to implement more precautionary measures, e.g. more windows to actively confirm your decision, to avoid careless mistakes. Too late for the "organizer" in this case. The 20-year old guy will have to pay some 227,000 euro after over 1,500 people hit the “join” the party button. €227,000 can easily ruin someone.

What would you do?

RT :: German officials have lost their tolerance for massive benders coordinated via Facebook. Their solution: make the social network share the burden of six-figure fines that party organizers receive over costly police operations to clean up the mess.

A report by rt.com

HT: Tristan Bailey, via Jeff Jarvis, here:

Shoot the platform RT @tristanbailey: Shoot the messenger? Germany wants Facebook to pay fines for illegal parties bit.ly/MnZJ5r

— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) August 17, 2012

Movie studios compiled scary private life dossier on SurfTheChannel owner

TorrentFreak :: The Hollywood-backed Federation Against Copyright Theft was the driving force behind the four-year jail sentence handed down to former SurfTheChannel owner Anton Vickerman yesterday. The organization conducts its own investigations and then hands its findings to police and other authorities, but just how much can they discover about targets such as Vickerman? Internal FACT documents obtained by TorrentFreak show the anti-piracy group go to scary lengths to delve deep into people’s private lives.

A report by enigmax, torrentfreak.com

Eric Goldman: Heavy dose of hyperlinks gets defamation lawsuit against Gizmodo tossed

Ars Technica :: A properly cited article, filled with hyperlinks to original source materials, should be extra-resistant to defamation claims—even if written with typical blogger snark. Readers can easily inspect the source materials themselves and make their own judgments about the article's veracity.

The defamation lawsuit against Gizmodo, a comment by Eric Goldman, arstechnica.com

Blog Post: Using Links as Citations Helps @gizmodo Defeat a Defamation Claim--Redmond v @gawker Media j.mp/OcspfV

— Eric Goldman (@ericgoldman) August 12, 2012

Facebook and FTC finalize privacy settlement

ReadWriteWeb :: Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission have a final settlement concerning charges that Facebook deceived members when it said they could keep their information private on the social platform while allowing it to go public.

A report by Dan Rowinski, www.readwriteweb.com

All nations lose with Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement expansion of copyright terms

EFF | Electronic Frontier Foundation :: EFF has previously written about various troubling provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) that is being negotiated under wraps. One other major concern is that TPP seeks to propagate the excessive copyright terms currently found in American copyright legislation, and will become yet another tool of the second enclosure movement: “the enclosure of the intangible commons of the mind”.

A report by Carolina Rossini | Yana Welinder, www.eff.org