California court gives immunity to bloggers

Last week, MSNBC reported the California Supreme Court ruled that bloggers and participants in Internet bulletin board groups cannot be sued for re-posting defamatory statements made by others.

This case has been watched very closely by free speech groups and provides the same protection that internet service providers receive for hosting content posted by others. From the article:

The case involved a lawsuit against Ilena Rosenthal, a women’s health activist, who created an e-mail list and a newsgroup (alt.support.breast-implant) to discuss issues related to breast implants. Six years ago, she posted a letter written by a man who was highly critical of the efforts of a doctor to discredit advocates of alternative health treatments.

In the letter, the doctor, Terry Polevoy, was accused of trying to get an alternative medicine radio program canceled by using "scare tactics, stalking, and intimidation techniques" against the program’s producer. Polevy, who maintained a website himself to expose what he called "health fraud and quackery" sued Rosenthal for libel.

Rosenthal argued she did not write the letter herself, posting the work of another to the news group.

I’m not a legal eagle, but I would tend to apply this ruling to comments made by others to my posts, as well as comments made to other comments. While I moderate comments on this blog, visitors have made inflammatory statements about others, for which I should not be held responsible. I ask those who make comments to stay on topic, and avoid stupidity.

Read the entire article: "Calif. court says bloggers can’t be sued".

Life of a ‘domainer’

Some time ago, I talked about the buying and selling of domain names in "Have you heard of ‘Domain Kiting’? I hadn’t".

A ‘domainer’ is one who registers, buys and sells domain names for fun and profit. It’s not illegal; it’s not bad. Just another way to make a profit. Like any opportunity, there may be some questionable practices, but that’s not the point of my post.

To learn more, read the blog of John Chow giving us some interesting details in his "Making Money with Domain Names" post.

EBay Phish

Another classic, this time, targeting an EBay seller:

Some notes:

• Mouse over the action button and links and you’ll see an IP (instead of an EBay link) in the URL preview.
• Mouse over the item URL and you’ll see an IP (instead of an EBay link) in the URL preview.
• The button is served from EBay, as are the colors and EBay icon.
• The buyer link is legitimate.
• The reply-to address is accurate.

Not a bad phish, of course, it would have been nice if

1. I was actually selling something on EBay.
2. The end date of the auction wasn’t almost two months ago.

Don’t fall for these, folks.

Putting an end to "Hamburger Management"

Adrian Savage is a writer who just published "Slow Leadership: Civilizing The Organization". He describes "Hamburger Management":

Hamburger Management is a shoddy, debased version of real leadership that focuses on just three things: whatever demands least, can be used fastest, and costs least. It thrives wherever organizations seek to meet unrealistic targets with insufficient resources to maximize short-term profits. Indeed, Hamburger Management is short-term by nature, and will habitually sacrifice long-term advantage and value for the immediate gratification of bosses and investors.

Spot on.

LifeHack: ‘Why We Should Put an End to “Hamburger Management”’