Disqus - Latest Comments for plussizehalloweencostume

Re: The Google Sidewiki Controversy

plussizehalloweencostume — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:11:42 -0000

drmani,

While you are correct (to a certain extent) that the era of control is over -- the ability and creativity of the internet community to get around the Iranian Government's attempt to stifle the flow of information to and from the Iranian dissidents being a prime example -- your logic, not to mention your analogy, is faulty. For one thing, once the government of the People's Republic of China gets wind of this, what do you think the likelihood of them tolerating Sidewiki will be? Think the Russian government is going to idly stand by and allow Russians to comment on the sidewiki for Pravda's website? As we've all seen in the past, all it takes is a couple of threats from the PRC to get Google to fall all over themselves in an effort to comply.

I'm all for free speech, and for free speech on the internet. If you want to set up your own website and disparage my name and reputation, feel free. I'll even support your right to do so. To adopt your Agatha Christie country village analogy, I support the general right of those malicious petty village gossips to be out there doing whatever damage they wish. I support the right of any villagers who want to go find those gossips and indulge their own love of gossip. I support the right of the locals to go out and orate in the village commons, to publish a local newspaper, etc., as long what they say is correct, and if it isn't, I can publicly call them on it, and hold them accountable for it. But that right ends where the public space ends, and private property begins.

The village gossips don't have a right to come into MY house against my will, and force their gossip on me. They don't -- or shouldn't -- have the right to come into my backyard against my will and use a megaphone to broadcast their gossip to my friends and neighbors. They don't have the right to sneak into my house, go through my email contacts, my cell phone call record, and my address book, and then use my own phone line, my computer, and my cable modem connection, to then tell all the other village gossips how they can contact all my friends and business associates with the latest gossip. Without my consent, they don't have the right to use what I have built with my own hard labor, my own money, my own resources, either for their own benefit, or for the amusement of random strangers who wander into the village looking for a little meanspirited fun.

The village tittle-tattle stops (or should) at my front door.

Re: The Google Sidewiki Controversy

plussizehalloweencostume — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:33:42 -0000

Has anyone tried this? This fellow is selling a SideWiki blocker for $27.00...

(url edited)

Re: The Google Sidewiki Controversy

plussizehalloweencostume — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:47:43 -0000

This is the first I've ever heard of Sidewiki, and all I can say, whomever at Google thought of this brilliant idea must have worked at eBay last year, and been the one to come up with their "new, improved" feedback policy, you know, the policy where buyers could leave any feedback they wanted, even if they never paid for their purchases, and sellers could not leave any negative feedback, even if the buyer didn't pay, reversed payment, wrote a bad check, was crazy/abusive or defrauded them in some way. The new policy where if you got a certain number of neutrals or negatives, and your feedback percentage fell below a certain percentage, eBay restricted your ability to list items for sale substantially, and you can guess what happened, unethical sellers started "buying" from their competition and immediately leaving negative feedback, within seconds of completing the "purchase", and without paying for the items, so their competition couldn't list items for sale, and there were even extortionists making purchases and then demanding discounts or money in exchange for not giving negative feedback.

As someone who works in the legal field, I'm frankly shocked that Google's legal team green lighted this, there's an absolute legal minefield they've stepped into. As a single person with a blog or website, we are personally responsible for anything which appears on our site, even if it was posted by someone else. We have an affirmative duty to patrol and promptly remove objectionable material, be it slanderous, promoting illegal activity, etc. In essence, Sidewicki is an extension of Google's website, the content is created and gathered through their code, it is stored on their servers, it is retrieved and displayed through their systems. They have control over it, and it doesn't appear they have the personnel, nobody would, to keep up with potentially hundreds of millions of people who could mess with them.

I forsee a slew of lawsuits, including class action lawsuits, from a multitude of aggrieved parties, from the myspace user who is maligned by an ex-boyfriend, the facebook user who is accidentally tricked into posting private information on Sidewiki instead of to their circle of friends, the Hollywood celebrity whose blog is populated with their home phone number and address, embarrassing personal information, or slander, the business owner whose business reputation or sales are damaged by the mischievous or unscrupulous competitors.

If it isn't gone fast, its gonna be a legal bloodbath.