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Justice Department, Megaupload and Anonymous… what happened and why?

FreelancersOffice.com — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:12:33 +0000

So, by now most people know that on Thursday the leaders of Megaupload were arrested by New Zealand authorities acting on request of the United States Justice Department, and that persons swayed the decentralized group that identifies itself as Anonymous to launch multiple retributions against a variety of targets that included the Justice Department website, the FBI website, Universal Music, RIAA and MPAA websites.

But what actually happened and why?

Throughout Wednesday, January 18th, there was a coordinated effort on the Internet to display, in an exceptionally visual manner, what the Internet could look like if bills such as SOPA and PIPA were to be passed in Congress. At the heart of the Internet strike was freedom of the Internet. One of the most notable effects of the strike was the complete blackout staged by Wikipedia. Other sites, such as Google, simply placed a blackout bar across their name and allowed users to continue to make use of the site’s services.

So why the huge protest? SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are trying to do good things, the problem is that they are trying to do good by doing a lot of possible harm.

SOPA is more formally known as “H.R.3261 — Stop Online Piracy Act”. You can find it on THOMAS, or check H.R. 3261 – Stop Online Privacy Act which is where I located it as of the time I am writing this, or the THOMAS entry for SOPA at the thomas.loc.gov website.

The first thing you see under the heading of the bill is the mission statement of the bill:

“To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by
combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.”

The first thing I have to think is – what other purposes?

The Stop Online Piracy Act, hereafter referred to as SOPA, was introduced in the House of Representatives on October 26, 2011 by Mr. Smith of Texas for himself, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Goodlatte, Mr. Berman, Mr. Griffin of Arkansas, Mr. Gallegly, Mr. Deutch, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Ross of Florida, Mrs. Blackburn, Mrs. Bono Mack, Mr. Terry and Mr. Schiff.

What concerns manyof those who oppose the bill is the manner in which SOPA seeks to stop online piracy. It is a long bill, so I will pinpoint areas I have seen that others have discussed, however, I encourage you to please read the bill for yourself.

I will be referring to the H.R. 3261 – Stop Online Privacy Act link in the following points:

Page 10.1 —-

Sec. 102 Action by Attorney General to protect U.S. customers
and prevent U.S. support of foreign infringing sites.

Sounds okay, right? I mean, we want our government to protect us, right? And they do have a few pages there that discuss how they find the owner of sites and order them to stop doing what they do not like. Then we get down to page 13, lines 21-25, and page 14, lines 1-10:

(i) IN GENERAL. — A service provider shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) that is subject to the order, including measures designed to prevent the domain name of the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) from resolving to that domain name’s Internet Protocol address. Such actions shall be taken as expeditiously as possible, but in any case within 5 days after being served with a copy of the order, or within such time as the court may order.

Move on down to page 15, lines 11-20, and we have…

B) INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES.—A provider of an Internet search engine shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures, as expeditiously as possible, but in any case within 5 days after being served with a copy of the order, or within such time as the court may order, designed to prevent the foreign infringing site that is subject to the order, or a portion of such site specified in the order, from being served as a direct hypertext link.

Now it is possible that your favorite picture site will be compliant and remove all images that infringe on any copyrights, but if they don’t then the entire site is likely to be blocked by search engines so you can’t find them via a search engine anymore. And, even if you do have them bookmarked or the URL memorized so do not see why them no longer showing up on a search engine is a bad thing, page 15 line 21 kicks off another reason why you should be worried about SOPA.

That is where they specify that if you pay to use the legal parts of a website that has illegal content on it, that your payment network can still block you from making subscription payments to that service. Ending your ability to subscribe to it from within the United States.

What is of concern to manyis that by providing any sort of service where persons can communicate (think about your favorite forum or social networking site), or post content for others to download (think about your favorite file or document or image sharing site), the site owner can be held liable if their site is used for illegal purposes. Not the entire site, if just a portion of it is used for illegal purposes.

It is good to have someone make sure that your site is are not being abused or used for pirating, but as SOPA stands now, I would have to completely close my sites to comments (including my forums) so I could read EVERY comment before it was posted or I would face a $2,000,000 fine and prison time. For multiple cases a $5,000,000 fine. (And note that the same bill has $5,000,000 as the fine levied for someone that intentionally causes harm or death to someone or who shares military or government secrets – WHY is murder and treason comparable in fine to sharing two songs online????? Shouldn’t murder and treason be a bit more serious than an artist losing the sale of a .99 cent song???)

If I just leave my sites (as I have been known to do – a LOT), and someone posts links to where a movie can be downloaded (which BOTs do, a LOT), then under the SOPA bill I am held liable and fined multiple millions of dollars, plus whatever the entertainment industry decides to fine me for their lost income.

I’m in the US, and as far as I know all of my sites are too, but if a site is not in the US, and the site owner is not in the US to be dealt with personally by the laws of the US, then the Attorney General can order search engines to block your ability to see the site. (Section 102(c)(2)(B) as indicated in excerpt above – (Page 15, Lines 11-20)) That means the Attorney General decides to black out sections of the online world to US citizens. For their own good of course.

The scary part is, we, the people of the United States, would be giving our government the right to decided what sites need blocked from us. How easily could that power be abused?

And that is just part of what makes SOPA scary. I can’t go into full details in this post, so for a very good look at just what SOPA would mean, check out Why SOPA Is Dangerous byChris Held over at Mashable. He breaks it down into easily understandable language, but you still owe it to yourself to read the full bill and see just what it has to say for itself.

This post is VERY long, so I am going to break this discussion into a series of posts. Tomorrow I will tackle the next part of it: the Internet Strike and what happened with websites all across the Internet going dark for a day. I think if you read SOPA between now and then, you will understand why the sites felt it was necessary before I can get that post made, but come back anyway, I have some pictures of some of my favorites that I will share in tomorrow’s post. Then tomorrow or Monday I will get to why the Justice Department took down Megaupload and what you should know about Anonymous’ strike back, and why everything might have just been poorly timed events that snowballed to create the chaos it did.

Writing and Reading Short Stories – Open Courseware at MIT

FreelancersOffice.com — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:32:08 +0000

Rather or not I go back to college via my local college, I am going to take a few classes at MIT this fall. Specifically I am going to take some Open Courseware classes through MIT on writing. These are previously offered classes that have been made available, along with lecture notes and other information, for the general public. My first attempted course is going to be 21W.755 Writing and Reading Short Stories, which is an undergraduate class presented on the MIT website as it was taught by Shariann Lewitt in the Fall of 2006.

The course focuses on the craft of the short story, and explores the short story through reading short stories, writers speaking about writing, and writing exercises and workshops. I will obviously not benefit from a lot of what the original class offered, but I am hoping that I will still gain some useful information from the information that is available on the website.

Must Freelance mean Free? – Pt 5: Ethics of Advertising on Blogs

FreelancersOffice.com — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 23:56:42 +0000

In 2009 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began to look more closely at the guidelines that governed advertising, in particular as it applied to blogging and social media.

On October 5, 2009 the FTC released a press release on the publication of their final guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials, it was this guideline that would affect the way bloggers would work with advertisers. From their press release:

FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials

“The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.”

For the first time the FTC specifically addressed the concerns of blogging and product endorsement. In particular the FTC looked at posts by bloggers that had received cash or in-kind payment for review of a product to be considered an endorsement and new guidelines that specified that bloggers were to be required to disclose when they had material connections to a seller, product or service.

Their concern was not that bloggers made money through product endorsement, it was in the ethical question of if bloggers were being paid to give a false positive in their endorsement of products. In their revised guidelines, the FTC defined endorsements as being any advertised message that the consumer might believe expressed the opinions of the person who offered the endorsement rather than of the advertiser who sponsored the advertisement.

In the Revised Endorsement Guidelines the FTC offers the following example for when a blog posting is considered an endorsement under their new guidelines:

“A consumer who regularly purchases a particular brand of dog food decides
one day to purchase a new, more expensive brand made by the same manufacturer. She
writes in her personal blog that the change in diet has made her dog’s fur noticeably softer
and shinier, and that in her opinion, the new food definitely is worth the extra money. This
posting would not be deemed an endorsement under the Guides.

Assume that rather than purchase the dog food with her own money, the consumer gets it
for free because the store routinely tracks her purchases and its computer has generated a
coupon for a free trial bag of this new brand. Again, her posting would not be deemed an
endorsement under the Guides.

Assume now that the consumer joins a network marketing program under which she
periodically receives various products about which she can write reviews if she wants to do
so. If she receives a free bag of the new dog food through this program, her positive
review would be considered an endorsement under the Guides.”

In section 225.1 General Considerations the FTC states that any endorsements “must reflect the honest opinions, findings, belief or experience of the endorser.” They also specify the liability of unsubstantiated claims made by a person who is being paid to write about a product. Under item c of that section they clarify how this pertains to blogging:

255.1 (c)

Example 5: A skin care products advertiser participates in a blog advertising service. The
service matches up advertisers with bloggers who will promote the advertiser’s products on
their personal blogs. The advertiser requests that a blogger try a new body lotion and write
a review of the product on her blog. Although the advertiser does not make any specific
claims about the lotion’s ability to cure skin conditions and the blogger does not ask the
advertiser whether there is substantiation for the claim, in her review the blogger writes
that the lotion cures eczema and recommends the product to her blog readers who suffer
from this condition. The advertiser is subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated
representations made through the blogger’s endorsement. The blogger also is subject to
liability for misleading or unsubstantiated representations made in the course of her
endorsement. The blogger is also liable if she fails to disclose clearly and conspicuously
that she is being paid for her services. [See § 255.5.]

In order to limit its potential liability, the advertiser should ensure that the advertising
service provides guidance and training to its bloggers concerning the need to ensure that
statements they make are truthful and substantiated. The advertiser should also monitor
bloggers who are being paid to promote its products and take steps necessary to halt the
continued publication of deceptive representations when they are discovered.

The FTC addresses the need for disclosure of material connections between an endorser and an advertiser in section 255.5 Disclosure of material connections and paragraph 2 of Example 3 defines it in terms of social networking sites using the example of a tennis player that discusses laser surgery that was received at a specific clinic she has been paid to endorse:

Assume that instead of speaking about the clinic in a television interview, the tennis player
touts the results of her surgery – mentioning the clinic by name – on a social networking
site that allows her fans to read in real time what is happening in her life. Given the nature
of the medium in which her endorsement is disseminated, consumers might not realize that
she is a paid endorser. Because that information might affect the weight consumers give to
her endorsement, her relationship with the clinic should be disclosed.

A bit farther down in Example 7 they define what is expected in product endorsement disclosure in a blog post:

Example 7: A college student who has earned a reputation as a video game expert
maintains a personal weblog or “blog” where he posts entries about his gaming
experiences. Readers of his blog frequently seek his opinions about video game hardware
and software. As it has done in the past, the manufacturer of a newly released video game
system sends the student a free copy of the system and asks him to write about it on his
blog. He tests the new gaming system and writes a favorable review. Because his review is
disseminated via a form of consumer-generated media in which his relationship to the
advertiser is not inherently obvious, readers are unlikely to know that he has received the
video game system free of charge in exchange for his review of the product, and given the
value of the video game system, this fact likely would materially affect the credibility they
attach to his endorsement. Accordingly, the blogger should clearly and conspicuously
disclose that he received the gaming system free of charge. The manufacturer should
advise him at the time it provides the gaming system that this connection should be
disclosed, and it should have procedures in place to try to monitor his postings for
compliance.

And of interest to anyone in social networking is Example 8 which addresses disclosure in forums:

Example 8: An online message board designated for discussions of new music download
technology is frequented by MP3 player enthusiasts. They exchange information about
new products, utilities, and the functionality of numerous playback devices. Unbeknownst
to the message board community, an employee of a leading playback device manufacturer
has been posting messages on the discussion board promoting the manufacturer’s product.
Knowledge of this poster’s employment likely would affect the weight or credibility of her
endorsement. Therefore, the poster should clearly and conspicuously disclose her
relationship to the manufacturer to members and readers of the message board.

In reading through the guidelines it is clear that the FTC finds nothing unethical in a blogger, or someone participating in social networking, being paid or given in-kind payment for their opinion on a product or service, they simply require that the average reader of such information be able to identify when someone is being compensated by a company to write about their product or service. Their ethical stand is simply that they require any such endorsement of a product or service to be an honest representation of the product or service based on the personal experience of the person who writes the blog entry, with equal responsibility being on both the advertiser and the endorser to assure that all statements and claims made are true and able to be substantiated.

The FTC is also very clear in their caution that the guides do not cover every possible instance of endorsement, and that any instance of endorsement would need to be weighed on the actual circumstances of the advertisement.

The best advice I could offer to anyone that is looking to incorporate advertising into their blog or social networking would be to pause, take a good look at your blog, and ask yourself – “If this blog belonged to someone else, and I was a new reader, would I be able to easily identify endorsements where the blogger was paid in some way to write about something?” Another question that you should, in my opinion, ask yourself is “Would I have recommended that without having been paid in some way for the recommendation?” If not, you need to make doubly certain that the average reader can identify that you are being paid in some manner for making endorsements on your blog. You do not have to disclose how much you were paid, although it is usually appropriate to indicate if you received the product for review, you simply need to be sure that your reader can identify endorsements where you were paid in some way by the advertiser to recommend their product or service.

So, that is the FTC’s perspective on the ethics of blog advertising, now I want to hear what you have to say. What do you think? Is it unethical to publish advertising on a blog? Why or why not?

What is the cost of free information?

FreelancersOffice.com — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:41:09 +0000

I love to write. It is, according to what my mother once said, my addiction. I actually get jittery, like a deprived caffeine addict, if I go too long without being able to write something. Because of this love for the stringing together of words I made the choice years ago to pursue a career in writing.

And there is where we encounter a problem. To have a career in anything you need to be able to pay your bills while you are doing it. Even the IRS says that something is not a job if you are not being paid while you do it. So, while I love to create things using words, articles and stories and more, I need to be able to pay the bills while I am doing so.

Part of my struggle in getting sites that show promise to the point where they actually have the potential I know they possess is the inability to continue to build the sites out of pocket. One of my websites, Family Caregiver Information (www.familycaregiver.info), is an example of websites that I created with a strong vision, that then dropped away in the face of being unable to continue to work on the website because I had to focus on earning money through other writing projects.

With the expectation of readers online of getting their information for free, it is exceptionally hard for the small scale writer to have a chance to earn a living doing what they love… not without some means of transforming the free content that is provided into some kind of revenue generating system.

Online the most logical option available to writers is advertising. That creates a balance point that can be hard to work with, however, in how many ads are too many? I was reading an article on the website of a very high level newspaper today and had to navigate around advertising to read what it was that I was attempting to read. There was a large banner at the top of the screen, a couple of large advertisements to the left of the article, an ad at the end of each page of the article and on each of the three pages of the article there was an advertisement after the first or second paragraph.

We are talking about a newspaper that according to its own circulation demographics has a Sunday circulation of over 1 million, and a Monday – Friday circulation of well over 700,000, and retail or newsstand outlets for single copy sales of over 22,000 newspaper racks… and it places enough advertising on each page of its website as to be annoyingly distracting.

Small time writers can not afford to risk scaring off their readers with hard to access information that is cluttered with distracting advertising, so extra special care has to be taken in selecting the best balance point between what is best for them and what is best for their readers.

Tomorrow I will look at what choices a writer has for earning money and still offering the online reader the free content they have come to expect.

Funny Creatures

FreelancersOffice.com — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:48:33 +0000

The folks over at the Game Giveaway of the ~~Day~~ err, ~~weekend~~, errr… occasional weekend… yeah, The folks at Game Giveaway of the occasional weekend, have a new offering up for players that want some semi-mindless puzzle solving.

Funny Creatures, or, as I prefer to unofficially dub it, Hairless Hamsters.

Funny Creatures is a puzzle solving game with two levels of difficulty to it, easy and hard. The goal of the game is to move the little critters (a circular creature with large eyes and small hamster-like feet poking out from it in four directions) around until you get it to stop in the round ‘base’ plate of the same color.

Some levels have arrows that will redirect the Creatures into the direction the arrow indicates, making it a bit harder to move them where you want them. In all levels the same basic rules of movement apply. Creatures move in a straight line until they meet an obstacle – either a wall or another creature. You can not move say one square at a time, when they move they move as far as the open floor allows.

A nice “I’m asleep and wanna distract myself from going to bed” game, but not something to rush out and buy in my opinion.

Good points:

Solve any puzzle you feel like working on, you do not have to solve puzzles in sequence.
No timer, just a count of how many moves were needed to complete the puzzle
East enough for small kids to play, but not so easy it would put adults to sleep
Music is pleasant to listen to and not distracting – set volume in options
Floor grid can be turned off/on in the options
Full screen toggle in the options

Strikes against the game:

Complaints have been made by other users at the giveaway site that it is not Windows 7 or Vista compatible.
Simplistic no frills game with a too easy to reach ‘booooring’ margin

All in all it is worth a try if you like to veg and do not have something to do such as write a novel, get an article started, post to blogs, watch Netflix online or play Sims3 …. I have all of those other things, so I’ll head off and attack one or more of them and let you check out the Funny Creatures game some more yourself if you feel inclined.

Computer back, back to work

FreelancersOffice.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:30:06 +0000

I got my desktop computer back the other day and after some confusion on the HP tech dudes not having completed the setup, something a nice lady at the HP support center helped me finish over the phone, I have got the computer back up and running and have been spending my time getting it reorganized so that I can work on it again.

I have about half the programs reloaded, but am hitting the annoying block of the new version of AIM won’t work with the comptuer. I got an older version to work on it, so I will try agian to get the new one to work and if that fails I am just going to load the older version up and forget their new one. They usually mess up their new versions anyway. Last time they updated it I lost the ability to directly connect with my writing buddies, removing the ability to pass our novel-length writing back and fort, which made AIM all but useless to us.

Other than AIM I have my writing program back on the computer, still need to move the novel from the laptop back to the desktop though, and I have to get my image program (GIMP) back up and working on here. I know there are more programs I need to get up and going, but I’ll be happy with them between now and the weekend – oh, and iTunes and Audacity, I need to catch up on the writing podcasts I have missed.

Business Card Software – Free today

FreelancersOffice.com — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:24:56 +0000

As I write this I am waiting for a business card program to download so I can test it out. The program, BusinessCards MX 3.92, is the featured program at Giveaway of the Day today – see link in the sidebar on the left.

BusinessCards MX is a card design program for small business owners, I have already discovered that they have a wide selection of card designs at their website for apparently free download. I’m going to see if I can create a good business card for my Family Caregiver Information site (www.familycaregiver.info) as a test for the program, then I will let everyone know what I think of it.

The standard price for the BusinessCard MX program is $29.95, so if this is something that you might be interested in I encourage you to check out the Giveaway of the Day website and pick up a copy while it is still free. (It has about 10 more hours to go as of when I am writing this.)