http://www.mediapost.com/publications/ Analysis of the policy issues that relate to digital media. en-us Copyright 2009 MediaPost Communications http://www.mediapost.com/rss Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:11:22 EST http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117848Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:07 ESTThe federal government today dropped its appeal in the MySpace suicide case, ending its efforts to prosecute Lori Drew for her role in an online hoax tied to the death of 13-year-old Megan Meier. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117849Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:07 ESTNot swayed by BlueBeat CEO's "pschoacoustic simulation" argument, a judge has issued a preliminary injunction banning the music site from continuing to sell Beatles tracks. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117739Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:15:09 ESTKurt Greenbaum, an editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, doesn't seem all that happy that his newspaper allows people to publish unmoderated comments. And he doesn't seem to be much of a fan of the paper's privacy policy, either. In a recent, remarkably self-satisfied column, "Post a vulgar comment while you're at work, lose your job," Greenbaum bragged about how he outed one formerly anonymous commenter.http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117655Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:05:20 ESTWhen privacy advocates complain about behavioral targeting techniques, industry executives tend to respond by condemning the critics as ivory-tower elitists. But new research is increasingly casting doubt on the idea that the average consumer doesn't care about behavioral targeting. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117592Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:54:39 ESTThe revised Google Books settlement, filed Friday just minutes before a midnight deadline, has left privacy advocates underwhelmed. The deal would allow Google to digitize and sell books at prices set by a new book registry, a collective rights group similar to the music industry's ASCAP and BMI. Civil liberties organizations have pointed out that the agreement leaves Google in a position to amass at least as much in-depth information about users' reading habits as libraries. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117498Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:15:47 ESTTen years ago a stunt marketing campaign online propelled "The Blair Witch Project" to $250 million in box office receipts, but few other Web hoaxes have been similarly successful. Some, in fact, have been so questionable that it's hard to believe anyone greenlighted the campaigns. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117417Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:15:12 ESTA German man convicted of murder has demanded that Wikipedia remove his name from all articles about the killing of his victim, Walter Sedlmayr. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117349Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:17:01 ESTHollywood executives have made a lot of noise about wanting ISPs to implement "three strike" policies for online piracy, but haven't made much headway with network providers. Now, however, a town in Ohio has taken matters into its own hands by instituting a one-strike policy -- against itself. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117273Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:30:57 ESTIn a stunning show of disrespect for civil liberties, the federal authorities recently attempted to subpoena the IP addresses of Web visitors to the left-wing news site Indymedia.us, the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation reports. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117189Wendy Davis <wdavis@mediapost.com>Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:15:22 EST