kylewebs

If you check the NSFW Tumblr porn tag, you’ll find loads of pornography. There’s a ton of spam, but also many legit users posting it. But porn company Perfect 10 isn’t happy about the copyright infringements, so they filed a lawsuit against Tumblr.

The publisher makes it clear in the lawsuit that all content posted on Tumblr that comes from Perfect 10 is clearly copyright infringement. However a DMCA notice needs to be filed for each piece, not just a generic description of the infringed work. The lawsuit goes on to say that there is a “rampant and unremedied uploading, display and distribution of Perfect 10’s copyrighted photographs.” They claim they have issued several DMCA take down notices to Tumblr, who has “turned a blind eye” to the situation.

What about all the other infringed content on Tumblr? Websites like Tumblr, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter stay alive with Safe Harbor laws. These laws say that users are responsible for what they post, not the website. But those laws only apply if the website in question complies with DMCA laws.

If they have ignored complete take down notices that show the content is infringed upon, the lawsuit would require them to not only pay Perfect 10 five million dollars in damages, but would also have to remove the content, and adhere to DMCA take down notices and copyright laws.

The lawsuit can be seen here.

Facebook might be headed back to court, for not going to court. Some employers have been requesting Facebook passwords before hiring so they can internet stalk their candidates. ACLU Lawyer Catherine Crump explains:

“it’s an invasion of privacy for private employers to insist on looking at people’s private Facebook pages as a condition of employment or consideration in an application process. People are entitled to their private lives. You’d be appalled if your employer insisted on opening up your postal mail to see if there was anything of interest inside. It’s equally out of bounds for an employer to go on a fishing expedition though a person’s private social media account.” 

Facebook commented on the issue, saying:

“you should never have to share your password, let anyone access your account, or do anything that might jeopardize the security of your account or violate the privacy of your friends….As a user, you shouldn’t be forced to share your private information and communications just to get a job. And as a friend of a user, you shouldn’t have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don’t know and don’t intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job.”

Although Facebook is clearly against the idea of sharing passwords, they have done nothing legally to protect their users, and that’s where they might get in trouble. But why should they? Because it’s the right thing to do. They have enough money to do it. They don’t have to take everyone’s back, but unleashing hell on a few repeat offenders will send a message to the rest of them. But let’s be real here. That won’t happen. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do. See, if doing the right thing were important, then this wouldn’t even be an issue because it wouldn’t be happening.

If multiple friends’ privacy is broken, then they will post less frequently because they will not have trust in their friends’ internet privacy. And you get where it goes from there, right? The network falls apart and someone like Google+ can jump in - which, by the way, I still have faith in. It takes patience. But that’s not what this is about. Why else should Facebook do it? Restoring the trust that has been lost through the countless privacy issues over the years will benefit them.

Employers are not going to stop just because a privacy officer at Facebook told them to. They need to go to court with some of these users. Having access to employers Facebook pages will give them information they could never legally ask for in an interview, or on an application: sexual orientation, relationship status, religious views, political views, who they hang out with, what their private conversations are about, and so forth. 

Remember when the internet killed SOPA? Well, they really want to internet stalk us. Hollywood has a backup plan, and it works, and they’re doing it: take control of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). There is no law that needs to be passed now. The entertainment industry just needs to shake a few corporate hands and there is a new policy in place starting July of 2012.

The new policy which is being accepted by all major ISP’s will have the ISP’s “voluntarily” track user activity and police offending users in a “gradual” manner. Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon are some who are supporting the program sponsored by none other than the RIAA. And here’s how CNET says it works:

The program, commonly referred to as graduated response, requires that ISPs send out one or two educational notices to those customers who are accused of downloading copyrighted content illegally. If the customer doesn’t stop, the ISP is then asked to send out “confirmation notices” asking that they confirm they have received notice.

At that time, the accused customers will also be informed of the risks they incur if they don’t stop pirating material. If the customer is flagged for pirating again, the ISP can then ratchet up the pressure. Participating ISPs can choose from a list of penalties, or what the RIAA calls “mitigation measures,” which include throttling down the customer’s connection speed and suspending Web access until the subscriber agrees to stop pirating.

The ISPs can waive the mitigation measure if they choose and not one of the service providers has agreed to permanently terminate service.

So to all the internet users out there (anyone reading this), feel free to pass it on. This isn’t good, y’all.

In an attempt to win a small court battle, PepsiCo, Mountain Dew’s parent company, has made a bizarre statement about mice dissolving in the drink before consumption. It’s exactly what it sounds like. One mouse allegedly didn’t fully dissolve in a can of the citrus drink, sending them to court.

Experts called in by PepsiCo’s lawyers offered an explanation for why it couldn’t be true: the Mountain Dew would have dissolved the mouse, turning it into a “jelly-like substance,” had it been in the can of fluid from the time of it’s bottling until the day the plaintiff opened it, 15 months later. However, countering experts say drink would still contain the dead mouse, which Pepsi has failed to deny. In addition, there is always that small percent of any statistic that shows otherwise. If 100 people eat pizza every day, there will still be at least a couple days when one of those people decides not to eat pizza. 

Forget about the legal disputes, is Mountain Dew crazy enough to dissolve mice carcasses? And what does that do to your intestines? Is Mountain Dew’s classic slogan “It’ll tickle your innards” the world’s most sickening understatement?

Even though no published studies have been done on how rapidly Mountain Dew dissolves mice, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the neon green soda can eat away teeth and bones in a matter of months and would likely do a number on a small rodent.

Yan-Fang Ren of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, who has studied the effects of citric acid on bones and teeth, agrees with PepsiCo: “I think it is plausible that it could dissolve a mouse in a few months, but dissolving [the mouse] does not mean it will disappear, because you still have the collagen and the soft tissue part. It will be like rubber.”

Research shows that drinks such as Mountain Dew and Sprite erode tooth enamel around six times faster than colas such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. That’s because Coke and Pepsi contain phosphoric acid which gives it a tangy taste, while citrus drinks such as Mountain Dew and Sprite contain citric acid to do the same job.

When Fraunhofer’s teem soaked human molars in Mountain Dew for two weeks (a time period comparable to about 13 years of normal beverage exposure), they calculated the teeth lost more than 6 percent of it’s volume.  

Citric Acid in Mountain Dew would eat away a mouse’s bones in a similar manner as it erodes teeth, breaking down the chemical bonds that hold the tissue togeather by infiltrating them with positively charged particles and the acid can also “combine with calcium in the bones, taking it away quicker,” Ren stated.

Your stomach and intestines are built to withstand a variety of acidic digestive juices. For people with a healthy digestive tracks, a little extra acid from the drink, which passes through quickly, shouldn’t harm your stomach like it does your teeth. Mountain Dew does contain orange juice, however, it contains no vitamin C. You should minimize contact with teeth by taking large gulps rather than small frequent sips, then washing your mouth out with water. Or you could just use a straw.

An Illinois man sued Pepsi in 2009 after he claims he “spat out the soda to reveal a dead mouse,” he then sent the mouse to Pepsi, who destroyed the remains.

Finally a President did something right. President Obama signed a new law; a press release from the White House states the law “requires the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe a regulation limiting the volume of audio on commercials transmitted by television broadcast stations, cable operators, and otehr multichannel video programming distributors.” They actually have to install technology that makes sure the volume of commercials doesn’t exceed the volume of the programs they air. The FCC will begin to enforce the law within a year.

“The country will now get the relief they deserve from the annoyance of blaringly loud television commercials,” said Rep. Eshoo in a press statement. “Consumers will no longer need to drive for the ‘mute’ button during commercial breaks.”

“The CALM Act, a pro-consumer measure signed into law December 19th by President Obama, will help lower the volume on TV commercials,” said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski in a press release. “The FCC will now focus on implementing the law to give consumers back the volume control on their TVs.” Congrats on your accomplishment, Obama.