“UK Music fans are turning their backs on regular file-sharing in favour of streaming and other ways of sharing music, especially amongst teens, according to the latest survey by The Leading Question, the specialist media and technology research agency. Following the recent Digital Britain Report which set out the UK Governments stance on how to… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: E-Commerce
International publishers demand new intellectual property rights protection to safeguard the future of journalism
News release, July 9, 2009: “On the day that Commissioner Viviane Reding unveils her strategy for a Digital Europe during the Lisbon Council, and as the European Commission’s consultation on the Content Online Report draws to a close this week, senior members of the publishing world are presenting to Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding and… Continue Reading
Cornell Research Study: Optimizing Web Traffic via the Media Scheduling Problem
Optimizing Web Traffic via the Media Scheduling Problem. Lars Backstrom, Jon Kleinbergy, Ravi Kumar, 15th ACM SIGKDD Intl. Conf. on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 2009: “Website traffic varies through time in consistent and predictable ways, with highest traffic in the middle of the day. When providing media content to visitors, it is important to… Continue Reading
Cross-industry Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising
News release: “A group of the nation’s largest media and marketing trade associations…released self-regulatory principles to protect consumer privacy in ad-supported interactive media that will require advertisers and Web sites to clearly inform consumers about data collection practices and enable them to exercise control over that information…This cross-industry self-regulatory task force represents the first time… Continue Reading
Predicting Social Security numbers from public data
Predicting Social Security numbers from public data, Alessandro Acquisti1 and Ralph Gross, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, May 5, 2009 (received for review January 18, 2009) “Information about an individual’s place and date of birth can be exploited to predict his or her Social Security number (SSN). Using only publicly available information, we observed a… Continue Reading
FTC Cracks Down on Scammers Trying to Take Advantage of the Economic Downturn
News release: “The Federal Trade Commission today announced a law enforcement crackdown on scammers trying to take advantage of the economic downturn to bilk vulnerable consumers through a variety of schemes, such as promising non-existent jobs; promoting overhyped get-rich-quick plans, bogus government grants, and phony debt-reduction services; or putting unauthorized charges on consumers credit or… Continue Reading
Is Google Really in a Competitive Space?
New York Times: “Google handles roughly two-thirds of all Internet searches. It owns the largest online video site, YouTube, which is more than 10 times more popular than its nearest competitor. And last year, Google sold nearly $22 billion in advertising, more than any media company in the world.” See also via ZDNet and ConsumerWatchdog.org:… Continue Reading
FTC Proposed Guidelines to Monitor Blogs For Commerical Claims and Payments
Federal Trade Commission, 16 C.F.R. Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising…”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… Continue Reading
Google Book Search Settlement Continues to Generate Controversy
TIME: “In a complex settlement agreement, which took three years to hammer out and spans 135 pages excluding attachments, Google will be allowed to show up to 20% of the books’ text online at no charge to Web surfers. But the part of the settlement that deals with so-called orphan books which refers to… Continue Reading
FTC Staff Report: February 2009 Self-Regulatory Principles For Online Behavioral Advertising
News release: “The Federal Trade Commission today sent a copy of a recent staff report, Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, to two subcommittees of the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce that are holding a joint hearing on behavioral advertising. A letter on behalf of the Commission that accompanied the report states… Continue Reading
EFF Launches 'Terms of Service' Tracker for Facebook, Google, eBay, and More
News release: “Terms of Service” policies on websites define how Internet businesses interact with you and use your personal information. But most web users don’t read these policies — or understand that the terms are constantly changing. To track these ever-evolving documents, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is launching “TOSBack”: a “terms of service” tracker… Continue Reading
Impact of URL Shorteners – Food for Thought
URL shorteners, such as TinyURL, bit.ly and notlong.com allow users to share and post links in a quicker manner with less likelihood of misdirection. They also add an intermediary between the reader and the site of origin, and the risk of countless dead links if and when the business model of the respective services ceases… Continue Reading
