Aug
31
2009
Transparency into how websites use, protect and disclose the personally identifiable information of its end users has been an especially hot topic over the past few years as the use of social networking and social utility sites have grown exponentially in popularity. So it’s no surprise that end users’ control (or lack thereof) over how their personally identifiable information is used, and the extent of that control, has been giving many in our industry “heart burn” and raising the eyebrows of legislators and governments globally.
Continue Reading »
Email the author
Jul
11
2009
Click hereto subscribe to digitalhhr.
Email the author
Jun
26
2009
ASCAP is suing AT&T for failure to pay public performance royalties for their sale of musical ringtones. According to ASCAP’s opposition to AT&T’s recently filed motion, ASCAP rebukes AT&T’s claim that a ringtone is no different than a song downloaded from iTunes and therefore does not require the payment of performance royalties. In response, ASCAP argues that when a ringtone plays to signal an incoming call, the public performance right is triggered in two ways—once when the ringtone is digitally transmitted to the phone (via the streaming transmission/delivery) and again when the song is actually played on the consumer’s phone to the public. According to the filing and a statement released by ASCAP, AT&T, and not the consumer, is then directly liable and responsible for the corresponding public performance royalties because the consumers’ phones are on AT&T’s network, and AT&T controls the entire series of steps that allow and trigger the ringtone performance based on incoming calls. Continue Reading »
Email the author
Jun
14
2009
Click here to subscribe to digitalhhr.
Email the author
Jun
07
2009
Click here to subscribe to digitalhhr.
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation released a “terms of service” tracker earlier this week. The tracker chronicles older and new terms of service agreements, side by side, and highlights changed provisions. The TOSBack.org site was created in part from an outgrowth of Facebook’s change in its service agreement in February that, under a broad interpretation, provided that Facebook with a license to its members’ uploaded content even after termination of membership. Following criticism in the media and by its members, Facebook backed down and provided for a termination of the license. But the episode revealed the difficulty end users have in evaluating how revised terms of service provisions can have real impact. The “terms of service” tracker currently tracks 44 sites, including Facebook, Google, Wordpress, Data.gov, YouTube, GoDaddy, and eBay. Continue Reading »
Email the author