[ECP] NetHappenings Resources & Headines
- From: Educational CyberPlayGround <admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: nethappenings@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:01:00 -0400
Congratulations to my friend's who have recently published something wonderful.
1)
Congrats to my Friend John Broomall
If you are an advocate of the ARTS then you're going to want to read this
STUDIO THINKING: THE REAL BENEFITS OF VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION
IS THIS THE BOOK THAT WILL CHANGE ARTS EDUCATION?
These authors will settle for nothing less than ?changing the conversation.?
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Arts/StudioThinkingArtsAdvocacy.html
John is the
Executive director of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Arts Education
and he reviewed the newest research out there.
2)
Congrats to my Friend Jonathan A. Weiss
Jonny's newest publication:
The Courts' Failure to Re-enfranchise 'Felons'
Requires Congressional Remediation . Otis King
and Jonathan A. Weiss Pacle Law Review Volume 27 Spring 2007 p 407.
IF you happen to have a library card and a computer
AND IF you know your very own library website
and IF they subscribe to the Lexis Nexis Database
then hold on to your hats:
YOU can get on your computer - http: over to the
library site - sing in just punch in your library
card number - then dig till you get to the database sections
open up lexis nexis (your library pays to have
it so you get it for freeeeeee) and "TA DA"
search -
The Courts' Failure to Re-enfranchise 'Felons'
Requires Congressional Remediation . Otis King
and Jonathan A. Weiss Pacle Law Review Volume 27 Spring 2007 p 407.
find - and print out for your own copy of it.
ISN'T LIFE SWELL IF YOU KNOW THIS KIND OF STUFF????
3)
Congrats to my Friend Prof. Daniel Cassidy
Counter Punch has just published Dan's Book
How the Irish Invented Slang by Daniel Cassidy -
The Secret Language of the Crossroads
Lot's of long and juicy reviews :-)
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/GuavaberryBooks/Domino/fbBooks.html
Daniel Cassidy flings down the gauntlet to all
those compilers of dictionaries who fled to the
safe haven of origin unknown when confronted with
the challenge of American slang. The originality
and importance of the argument makes this an
exciting contribution to both American and Irish
Studies. This is a landmark book, at once learned
and lively and quite enthralling as to how
American English acquired so vibrant a popular vocabulary.
~ Professor J. Joseph Lee, Director,
Glucksman Ireland House, Professor of History
and Irish Studies, New York University;
Professor of History, University College Cork.
Irish Americans especially will be delighted to
know, they have been speaking Irish all along in
their slang and American English, while believing
and bemoaning that they had lost their native
tongue many years ago. With imagination and
scholarship, Cassidy has restored this hidden
treasure to us in a book that is filled with revelations, wit and humor.
~ Bob Scally, Professor Emeritus, New York
University, author, The End of Hidden Ireland
you'll have a blast learning about all the Irish
words you thought were english words.
Getting ready for Halloween?
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/halloween.html
Happy Reading,
<Karen>
1)
Colbert Video on Cyberterrorism is actually based on a real story:
Explains Wifi Theft
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/wardriving.html
2)
EFF Engages Veteran Lobbyists to Take Fight Against
Warrantless Wiretapping to Capitol Hill
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_10.php#005474
San Francisco - As Congress debates letting the telecom
industry off the hook for its compliance with illegal
government surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans,
the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has enlisted two
veteran lobbyists to try to block amnesty for companies
collaborating with the warrantless spying.
To help with EFF's "Stop the Spying" campaign:
http://www.stopthespying.org
3)
Costco.com is now offering electronics recycling & trade-ins through
Greensight. Recycle:
Desktop and notebook PCs, monitors, MP3 players, digital cameras, printers,
fax machines, game systems, and video camcorders.
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/Computers_for_Learning_pro.html
4)
Some HAPPY news for a change!
2 local researchers win $500,000 MacArthur "genius awards"
Not only is she thinking abut using the $500,000 grant to write a book to
encourage women to get into science and engineering, but she was
breastfeeding her 8-day old baby when she got the call!
http://tinyurl.com/379cjf
5)
FORTUNE 50 Most Powerful Women in Business
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostpowerfulwomen/2007/
OR http://tinyurl.com/3a3584
6)
Bad things lurking on government sites
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/10/04/Bad-things-lurking-on-government-sites_1.html
The U.S. federal government took steps earlier this week to shut down
Web sites in California in order to protect the public from hacked Web
sites, but new incidents show that the problem is not going away any
time soon.
On Thursday, compromised pages hosted by the Brookhaven National
Laboratory and the Superior Court of Madera County, California, were
still hosting inappropriate content. Brookhaven had links that
redirected visitors to pornographic Web servers, and the Madera County
court site featured ads for porn and Viagra.
7)
iPhone Turned into Pocket-Sized Hacking Platform - October 2, 2007
http://www.eweek.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=216387,00.asp
The iPhone has been turned into a "pocket-sized ? network-enabled
root shell," said H.D. Moore, thanks to the well-known security
researcher having published shell code for the smart phone and
instructions on how to use it as a portable hacking platform.
Because of his work, Moore's highly popular Metasploit Framework
penetration-testing tool can now be used to easily write point-and- click
exploits targeting iPhone application vulnerabilities?exploits
that will give an attacker complete control of the device, given that
all of the phone's applications run with root access.
8)
For the next 40 days, Sitepoint is offering its newest book,
"Build Your Own Ruby On Rails Web Applications", for free PDF download:
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/rails1/freebook.php
9)
Apple, Target, Facebook Tops for College Students
YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) -- They love Apple, shop at Target, use Facebook
online and are split on whether they adore or despise the Geico lizard. They
wish they were better at sports, watch TV more often than surf the web and
view a lot of YouTube videos, but generally don't create them. Meet the next
generation of leaders and consumers: today's college students.
http://e.ccialerts.com/a/tBHBie6AHJQfmAUDSLFBCi1viMk/clck26
10)
CYBERBULLY
I would like to invite educators on your list to participate in this year's
fifth Annual Bullying Awareness Week. This year it will take place from
November 18th to the 24th. Those interested can visit
http://www.bullyingawarenessweek.org/ for more information.
Bill Belsey (an educator and long-time Nethappenings list member)
Let's Fight It Together
http://www.digizen.org/cyberbullying/fullFilm.aspx
Cyber Bullies - video's to watch and resources
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/cyberbully.html
Explained by Perry Aftab and
WiredSafety's Teenangels Cyberbullying: Angels and Warriors
Portrait of an (alleged) cyber bully as a young man
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/04/bot_herder_profile/
11)
Mobile books in Japan
Teens are back into reading novels on their cell phones
<http://www.switched.com/2007/09/26/mobile-novels-take-over-traditional-books-in-japan/>
Keitai ("kay-tie") are serial novels amazingly
written by their mostly young authors *on* their
cellphone keypads. They're "delivered in
read-on-the-corner byte-sized chunks on a regular
basis to young subscribers, manga (Japanese comic
book) style. One 20-something author
who was writing for 25,000 readers a day sold her novel to a book publisher.
12)
How To Write Unmaintainable Code
http://freeworld.thc.org/root/phun/unmaintain.html
Ensure a job for life ;-) by Roedy Green
13)
Student reporter who discovered university security breach
punished but not expelle
http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1621
OREGON -- When Western Oregon University student journalist Blair Loving
opened up a mysteriously placed file on the university's public server
last June, he thought he would find information about the College of
Education. Instead, he uncovered a file containing the names, Social
Security numbers, grade point averages and other sensitive information
of former students.
Loving's decision to download the file so that the campus newspaper, the
Western Oregon Journal, could report on the security breach nearly ended
his tenure as a student and led to the dismissal of the paper's adviser,
Susan Wickstrom, for allegedly mishandling a copy of the file and for
failing to advise the students about the university's computer policies.
Loving learned at a disciplinary hearing Sept. 28 that he would not be
expelled, but the infraction will remain on his record. Wickstrom was
informed in August that her contract would not be renewed.
14)
CALL TO ACTION:
Please contact your representatives to the U.S. House of
Representatives immediately about HR3746.
Members of the House Committee on Education and Labor have just
introduced legislation to control illegal file sharing in higher
education that uses essentially the same language as the recent Reid
amendment in the Senate. This bill, called the College Access and
Opportunity Act of 2007, includes language that:
* Makes the Secretary of Education an agent of the entertainment
industry.
* Gives schools no right to contest or appeal
industry provided- statistics on copyright
violations that can result in severe penalties.
* Requires use of unproven and very expensive technological controls.
* Could result in the loss of financial aid to all students of
schools that do not comply.
* Singles out institutions of higher education and ignores commercial
ISPs.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. Coordinate your response to this challenge with your institutional
executives and federal relations officers.
2. Call the main sponsors of the bill to express your strong
opposition to this proposal:
Representative Buck McKeon, ph: (202) 225-1956, fax: (202) 226-0683
Representative Ric Keller, ph: (202) 225-2176, fax: (202) 225-0999
(Please note: email may be rejected if you are not a constituent.)
Ask for the staff member in charge of higher education and leave a
voice mail if necessary. Call back later to speak with a staff member.
3. Call and/or e-mail your institution?s Congressional representative
and deliver the same strong message. (Find your representative?s
contact information at <www.house.gov>)
4. Call additional sponsors of the bill and deliver the same strong
message. (Rep. Rob Bishop, Utah?s 1st; Rep. Charles W. Boustany, Jr.,
Louisiana?s 7th; Rep. David Davis, Tennessee?s 1st; Rep. Luis
Fortuno, Puerto Rico; Rep. John Kline, Minnesota?s 2nd; Rep. Mark E.
Souder, Indiana?s 3rd; and Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina?s 2nd).
For copies of the relevant legislative language, talking points, and
template responses for your use, please see <http://www.educause.edu/p2pfs>.
Thank you for your help!
Mark Luker
Vice President
EDUCAUSE
"Furthermore, by far the best tactic is to develop grass root opposition.
That is the way to let the bill's proponents know of your
displeasure. I would suggest that effigy
burning demonstrations in front of the
district offices of legislators is the best way to deal with any legislator
who has been bought by a special interest."
Ronald J. Riley,
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
15)
FCC pushing media consolidation through by next month
"The FCC said comments that were to have been filed by Oct. 1
now may be filed through Oct. 22, with responses now due by Nov. 1."
http://riskman.typepad.com/peerflow/2007/10/fcc-media-conso.html
16)
Stop criticizing or we'll sue you -- and don't you dare post this threat either
Recently Justin Leonard, the operator of "www.infomercialscams.com"
and related web sites, got a demand letter from Donald Morris of a
law firm that calls itself "Dozier Internet Law." On behalf of a
company called Direct Buy, Morris threatened litigation for
defamation if criticisms of Direct Buy were not immediately removed
from the web site. Morris claimed that because the web site is
called infomercial "scams," and allows frustrated consumers to post
complaints about infomercials they consider to be scams, it forfeits
any immunity under the Communications Decency Act by inviting
defamatory posts.
Leonard has refused to cave in to the demand, which is based on
several elementary legal mistakes that are outlined in our response.
Because Morris' firm promotes itself to business clients as being
expert in opposing cybergriping, http://www.cybertriallawyer.com/
defamation, and in using copyright law to "get websites pulled down
without notice," http://www.cybertriallawyer.com/copyright-
infringement, you'd think he would know about the flaws in his own
claims.
In fact, it is apparent that Morris has the decency to be embarrassed
about his authorship of the letter, because he ended it with a threat
to file a copyright suit if his demand letter was posted online.
This is malarkey - posting the letter would be patently protected as
fair use. Morris told my colleague Greg Beck that he uses this
threat routinely, and successfully in that nobody has ever posted one
of his demand letters.
But instead of having to sue infomercialscams.com, Morris should have
the chance to pick on someone his own size - as I tell him in the
following open letter, Public Citizen has called his bluff by posting
his letter to ITS web site. We will see how much confidence he has
in the soundness of his legal assertion.
Morris' letter is on our web site at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/directbuycd.pdf;
our response can be found at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/directbuyresponse.pdf.
BY TELECOPIER: (804) 346-0800
October 5, 2007
Donald Morris, Esquire
Dozier Internet Law
West Shore III, Suite 300
301 Concourse Boulevard
Glen Allen, Virginia 23059
Re: How not to write a cease and desist letter-
an open letter in response to your September 21 threat
Dear Mr. Morris:
Here at Public Citizen, we frequently receive requests for
assistance from prospective clients who have received cease and
desist letters from lawyers whose clients have asked them to try to
quash criticism by threatening litigation over some form of
defamation, trademark, or copyright infringement. And we can
understand why a client that has been criticized online might want to
find some way to avoid the criticism, rather than having to speak
publicly to respond to critics. But sometimes we receive demand
letters that go over the top, making foolish legal assertions and
seeing violations where a more detached, objective response might be
to tell the client that this is a criticism that will have to be met
- or ignored. Indeed, sometimes we wonder whether the lawyer sending
the letter has thought to tell his client that the result of sending
a demand letter might bring attention to criticisms that otherwise
might have received less attention
On September 21, 2007, you sent a letter to Justin Leonard,
complaining about criticisms of DirectBuy on the web sites
www.infomercialblog.com, www.infomercialratings.com, and
www.infomercialscams.com. These web sites give users of infomercial
products the ability to post either criticisms of infomercial
products or sales practices that they consider to be "scams," or
defenses of such products or processes. The letter begins by
claiming that the words "scam" and "nightmare" on the web sites, in
addition to the word "defense," defame DirectBuy by endorsing the
posters' opinions. Of course, words like "scam" and "nightmare" are
statements of rhetorical opinion that do not support a claim for
defamation. McCabe v. Rattiner, 814 F.2d 839, 842 (1st Cir.1987).
Moreover, the words fairly characterize the bulk of the opinions of
former customers who have sent their accounts of their experiences
with DirectBuy to Leonard's web sites. Even worse is the claim that
Leonard defames DirectBuy by pointing out that there had been a
sudden influx of similarly worded favorable ratings from DirectBuy on
his web site, all posted from the "same location" - and wondering
whether DirectBuy might be "behind this." This is a plain example of
opinion based on disclosed facts - unless you have some information
suggesting that the stated facts are false.
Next, you assert that, by creating a category of report called
"scam," and allowing members of the public to complete reports within
that category if the posting person believes that the company being
criticized has misbehaved in the marketplace, Leonard becomes
responsible for whatever falsity may exist in the posted reports.
In fact, there is a long line of decisions in state and federal
courts that recognize that providers of interactive computer services
like Leonard's are immune from liability, and even from suit, under
the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230. E.g., Batzel v.
Smith, 333 F.3d 1018 (9th Cir. 2003). You point to the Ninth
Circuit's recent decision in Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com,
489 F.3d 921 (2007), which allowed a claim to go forward under the
Fair Housing Act on the theory that the creation of questionnaire
categories for gender preference, sexual preference, and family
status is itself inherently unlawful under the federal Fair Housing
Act. But of course there is nothing inherently unlawful about
allowing consumers to characterize infomercial offers as "scams."
You make the point that DirectBuy has operations in Canada, where it
allegedly suffers injury. You told my colleague Greg Beck that you
might bring suit in Canada, and you made a point of referring to
operations in Canada when I called you. I gather that you hope to
take advantage of the fact that there is no CDA and no First
Amendment in Canada. Before you spend your client's money on suing
in Canada, you might consider whether Leonard has any assets there,
and whether an injunction obtained in Canada would be worth the paper
it is written on. Moreover, Canada does provide some protections for
fair comment. Instead of suing in Canada, why not bring suit in
Tashkent? At least you'd get an exotic trip out of it, and
litigation in a totalitarian state would be more consistent with the
view that the Internet makes it too easy for consumer criticisms to
be heard. But Leonard won't bother to defend a lawsuit in either
location.
But the worst thing about your letter is the end: "Please be aware
that this letter is copyrighted by our law firm, and you are not
authorized to republish this in any manner. Use of this letter in a
posting, in full or in part, will subject you to further legal causes
of action." Such a posting would be fair use. Moreover, inquiry by
my colleague Greg Beck produced the interesting information that the
copyright in the letter has not been registered. Sadly, according to
what you told him, you have been successful in this intimidation
because none of your cease and desist letters has ever been posted.
There is always a first time. We are posting the letter on the
Public Citizen web site (the letter can be found
at (http:// www.citizen.org/documents/directbuycd.pdf)
so the public can assess our differences by
comparing your contentions with our responses. By
this letter, we are inviting you to test the validity of your theory
that the writer of a cease and desist letter can avoid public
scrutiny by threatening to file a copyright law suit if his letter is
disclosed publicly on the Internet.
Sincerely yours,
Paul Alan Levy
Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation
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