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stories filed under: "forums"
Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Aug 25th 2009 7:22pm


Filed Under:
forums, liability, section 230



Another Good Section 230 Ruling: Forum Owner Not Liable For Posts

from the good-to-see dept

It's good to see judges getting things right -- and more often than not, they're being both quick and smart when it comes to misguided lawsuits from plaintiffs against sites that host content, but don't publish it. The latest involves the owners of a bodybuilding forum website, bodybuilding.com, who were sued by a nutritional supplement maker, claiming that competitors had posted negative reviews on the site. But the judge tossed out the lawsuit against the forum operator using section 230. The supplement maker tried to argue that the forum owners had teamed up with the competitor in a conspiracy to say bad things about the supplement, but the judge didn't buy it. The only question was whether the website owners posted the content. They didn't. There's no case.

12 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Dec 24th 2008 4:10am


Filed Under:
blogs, comments, forums, homeland security, monitoring, terrorists



Wait, You Mean Homeland Security Isn't Already Scanning Blogs & Forums For Terrorists?

from the uh,-yikes? dept

USA Today is reporting that Homeland Security is looking to start scanning blogs, forums and message boards to try to track terrorists and terrorist activity. My first reaction to this, honestly, was shock. Shouldn't they have been doing this already? As in, for many, many years? To be fair, the article suggests that the real difference here is that in the past Homeland Security has done static searches that they check on every so often -- and now they're hoping for a more real-time solution. Even so, it strikes me as odd that Homeland Security didn't already have something that was at least close to real-time in alerting them to certain things online. For all the talk of sophisticated monitoring on internet activities, could it be that we're really that far behind in internet terrorist monitoring?

23 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Scams

Scams

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Oct 17th 2008 12:38am


Filed Under:
arrests, credit cards, darkmarket, forums, organized crime, scams



Massive Stolen Credit Card Number Site Shut Down

from the good-work dept

It took quite some time for authorities around the world to recognize the extent to which organized crime was using the internet for various scams and frauds, but in the last year or so, it seems like many agencies around the world really are looking to go after the criminals. The latest example is that Darkmarket, an invitation-only secretive forum for buying and selling credit card numbers, has been shut down, and 60 people involved with the site have been simultaneously arrested. This is definitely a step up from what we were hearing just a couple of years ago, where the best authorities could do was arrest kids messing around with phishing scams, rather than actually going after the organized criminals who were the real issue. Cracking down on one site and arresting 60 individuals isn't going to stop these scammers, but it's at least good to see authorities trying to focus on the real problem cases, rather than just the small fry. Update: As was pointed out in the comments, it appears the original BBC article we relied on has the story a bit wrong. The site itself was actually an FBI-run honeypot. So, while the site was taken down, the story of how the whole process worked is quite different than what was implied in the first article.

16 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
News You Could Do Without

News You Could Do Without

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Mar 7th 2008 9:01am


Filed Under:
forums, howard forums, streisand effect, takedown, unsecured url

Companies:
mobitv



MobiTV Has A Totally Unsecured Feed, Threatens To Take Down HowardForums For Pointing That Out

from the under-what-law? dept

If you follow the mobile communications world, you read HowardForums. It is, by far, the most comprehensive set of forums for anything having to do with mobile phones and mobile operators and applications. It's a fantastic resource... and MobiTV is trying to shut it down. MobiTV, if you don't know, provides a (fee-based) TV streaming service for mobile phones. It has partnered with various mobile operators to allow them to stream TV to mobile phones (a subject we were just talking about, noting how few people really are willing to pay). For some totally unknown reason, it appears that MobiTV actually broadcasts its television streams totally out in the open on a URL that anyone can access.

Someone noted this at Howard Forums and posted the information. There is no hacking going on. There is no encryption broken. There is nothing illicit whatsoever. The feed is a public URL. However, it appears that MobiTV thinks that because it did not properly secure its own feeds and left it on a public URL that somehow Howard Forums has broken the law. In a series of emails, MobiTV's corporate counsel has threatened to take down HowardForums and have contacted his web host (and are threatening to contact his registrar). It's difficult to see what sort of claim they have here. The URL is a public site. They did not attempt to lock it down in any way.

Broadband Reports has more on this story and thanks to reader CQD for pointing this out. You would think that with all the attention Julius Baer got last week for a similar situation, MobiTV's execs and lawyers would recognize how the Streisand Effect might come back to bite them.

25 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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4:44pm: Entertainment Industry: Yes, Please Keep Negotiating Secret Copyright Treaty To Save Our Asses (42)
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8:11pm: In Going Free, London Evening Standard Doubles Circulation While Slashing Costs (27)
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12:57pm: Intel Lawyers Again Go Too Far In Trademark Bullying (24)
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7:07am: Kicking People Off The Internet Not Enough In South Korea, Copyright Lobbyists Demand More (26)
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1:35am: Judge Says 'There's An Ad For That...' And It's Ok For Now (14)

Wednesday

11:01pm: Oh Look, Some Police Do Know How To Use Craigslist As A Tool (8)
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