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In an earlier, more innocent era, the shocking rumors about the past of a former first lady of Germany would have stayed put in the drawing rooms of the political elite. Nowadays, they appear unbidden on Google.
Say a schoolchild writing a homework assignment about Bettina Wulff entered her name into the search engine. “Bettina Wulff prostitute,” Google’s autocomplete function would helpfully but perhaps slanderously suggest. “Bettina Wulff escort” would pop up for good measure. “I was stunned,” Ms. Wulff, who vehemently denied the accusations, told the weekly newsmagazine Stern, one of several publications to feature her on the cover in recent weeks. “I felt powerless and cried a lot.” As a result, Ms. Wulff, whose husband resigned as president in February in the midst of a scandal over favors from wealthy friends, is now the leading player in a latter-day fable mixing gossip, sharp-elbowed politics and new technology. Taking an aggressive tack against the rumors, she filed a lawsuit against Google in a Hamburg court. Her suit signals the latest effort to force the Internet giant to play the role of online referee, following close behind Google’s decision to block an inflammatory anti-Muslim video from YouTube in certain countries.
As Google Fills in Blank, a German Cries Foul
A French court rebuked the magazine Closer for publishing “particularly intrusive” photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, ordering its publisher to cease all publication, distribution or sales of the pictures, and to hand over all digital copies of the images to the royal family.
But the judgment had already been outpaced by the Internet and the international gossip press, which have brought the grainy photos of the duchess to readers and viewers across the globe. The ruling was a response to a lawsuit brought by the duchess and her husband, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. The court ruled that the photographs, taken while the couple was vacationing at a private villa in the south of France, had violated the duchess’s rights to privacy and image control. The publisher, Mondadori Magazines France, owned by the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, was also ordered to pay the couple about $2,600 to cover legal fees. Additional penalties will be assessed each day the publisher does not relinquish its digital copies of the photographs.
French Court Rules Against Magazine on Royal Photos
[Commentary] A colleague from a TV news network was telling me the other day that its informal slogan was now “Never wrong for long.” News goes on air as it emerges in a furious competitive scramble, and then if it proves inaccurate it is supplanted rather than corrected.
That, I guess, is what is meant by the new “churnalism.” So intense is the churn that nothing has much weight. Accuracy sometimes seems a quaint journalistic concept. As for truth, it belongs to a distinct moral universe. Memes don’t just happen through curious symbiosis. As Evgeny Morozov, the author of “The Net Delusion,” told me, “It’s not necessarily true that memes are born rather than made.” In this case, a ferociously anti-Islamic Copt named Morris Sadek labored hard to interest an Egyptian journalist in the movie; only then did the infernal cascade begin. New media often need the help of mainstream media before viral critical mass is achieved. Once it is, the algorithms kick in. Outfits like YouTube are agnostic intermediaries. They want, as Morozov put it, “more clicks, more traffic, more knowledge about viewers and so more advertising.”
Never Wrong for Long
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) introduced a high-skilled immigration bill that has received the backing of several tech companies. Smith's bill, the STEM Jobs Act, is scheduled for a vote in the House on Sept 20. The measure boast 50 co-sponsors, the bulk of whom are GOP members. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) is the lone Democratic co-sponsor of the bill, though a House Judiciary aide said Smith is working to round up more supporters ahead of Thursday's vote. Smith's bill would eliminate the diversity green card program and reallocate up to 55,000 green cards a year to foreign-born graduates with doctorates in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines from U.S. universities. Remaining visas would be made available to graduates with master's degrees.
Rep Smith unveils tech-friendly STEM visa bill
Human Rights First, a human-rights group, criticized the White House for asking Google to consider taking down a controversial anti-Muslim video, arguing the request undercut the government's responsibility to protect free speech.
"In taking the unusual step of calling on Google to review whether continuing to make this offensive film available is in compliance with the company’s terms of use agreement raises concerns that the administration is willing to restrict freedom of speech to avoid giving offense to a particular group of people," said Meg Roggensack, a senior adviser for Human Rights First. "The U.S. government has been, quite understandably, concerned with the security of its personnel abroad; its strategy in addressing this film and the backlash need[s] to focus on safety and security measures, not on restricting free speech.”
Human-rights group slams White House for asking Google to review anti-Islam video
Public Knowledge, which has lent moral support to Dish's Hopper ad-skipping DVR, the target of a suit by Fox, has added its legal support as well. The group filed an amicus brief with a California district court asking it to deny Fox's request that the court step in to put a stopper on the Hopper. "Fox may have sued Dish, but its real target is the wallet of the ordinary television viewer," Public Knowledge said in its brief. "It wants to take away the home recording rights that all viewers enjoy, so that it can sell back to them the ability to watch programs on demand...This Court must reject Fox's attempt to assert rights it does not have."
Public Knowledge Puts Support for Dish in Legal Hopper Press release (Public Knowledge)
A federal court has, for now, invalidated a decision that could have taken some of the "dark money" contributions out of a campaign funding system fueling hundreds of millions of dollars in local and national TV campaign ad buys.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit reversed a lower court decision (Van Hollen v. FEC) and upheld a Federal Election Commission interpretation of campaign finance law. That FEC interpretation, of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), was that only contributions by corporations or unions specifically earmarked for electioneering communications -- TV and radio ads, for example -- required disclosure to the FEC of the names and addresses of each person who gave at least $1,000 toward that targeted contribution. That meant those contributing money not specifically earmarked for campaign ads did not have to be disclosed, opening the door for so-called "dark money" contributions.
Federal Court Reverses Ruling on Campaign Finance Disclosure
Six rural carriers will have launched LTE networks by the end of 2012 thanks to Verizon’s LTE in Rural America program. That will give Verizon customers 4G service in small towns well beyond its 400 market footprint. But the Verizon’s rural partners benefit plenty as well.
- They get access to 4G spectrum, which many of these operators failed to win or couldn’t afford to bid on at auction.
- They can get their networks up much faster because they only need to build LTE radio infrastructure; Verizon is letting them tap into its core and service delivery networks.
- They get reciprocal roaming agreements – not only to Verizon’s customers get to roam into their networks, their subscribers can wander through Verizon’s vast metro LTE footprint covering 235 million people.
- They get access to devices. By virtue of using Verizon’s spectrum, these rural carriers will be compatible with any 4G device designed for Verizon’s network. The most obvious example of this is Cellcom, which will land the new iPhone 5 a week after it goes on sale at the big operators.
Verizon’s 4G network is about to get a lot more rural LTE in Rural America 2nd Annual Conference (Verizon Wireless)
Google Maps Street View is fine for eyeing what a business looks like on the outside. But Google just made it much easier to open up Maps, then open up doors of select businesses to see what it looks like on the inside. Now when you open up Google Maps, you can pull out the orange Pegman and drop him on top of any of the new orange dots that will appear to take a tour inside a business.
Google Maps Gets All Up In Your Business
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted to move forward with an investigation of alleged infringement of Motorola Mobility patents by Apple.
Motorola, in an August complaint filed at the ITC, accused Apple devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, of infringing patents related to email notifications, location reminders and media players. Motorola has asked the ITC to bar Apple from importing those devices into the US. The ITC will assign the case to an administrative law judge, who will schedule and hold an evidentiary hearing. The judge will determine whether Apple has violated section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, and that decision can be reviewed by the commission.
ITC to investigate Motorola patent complaint against Apple