| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| 1029usr078198 |
Posted - January 10 2009 : 18:30:56
Listen now. or Download the archive.
Question: We have a listener who emailed in this question: How could a person erase negative information that someone has written and posted over the internet. For example, libelous statements posted on MySpace, Facebook or other social network?
Answer: For sites like Wikipedia that allow anyone to edit any article, you just sign in (if necessary) and edit. For a forum site, you'd contact the moderator of that site and ask them to correct or remove the information. In my forums, for instance, I can edit or delete anything that's been posted. Most sites that have user-generated content (like forums, or social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace) also have a "Terms of Use" document that describes what can be done with the service. As an example, in Facebook's Terms of Service, under "User Conduct", we find this statement, "You represent, warrant and agree that no materials of any kind submitted through your account or otherwise posted, transmitted, or shared by you on or through the Service will violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other personal or proprietary rights; or contain libelous, defamatory or otherwise unlawful material." Most sites monitor an email address like abuse@whatever.com. Facebook has abuse@facebook.com. (Here's a link to a page detailing what you should do: http://www.facebook.com/safety/) If all of this fails, you CAN sue for libel. As Christians, we have to take Jesus' words in Matthew 5:40 into account regarding whether we can sue. (Some people aren't comfortable suing anyone, others just don't want to sue other Christians, others say suing corporations is OK since they aren't a person, etc.) I don't know where you stand on that.
But that's my advice. Of course, I'm no lawyer so take this for what it's worth.
To recap,
1. Change it yourself if possible.
2. Report the misinformation to the site's operator/moderator/abuse link or email address.
3. Sue.
Cool Site: http://www.cityofcollegedreams.org: Ben Kaplan runs a site dedicated to helping you get money specifically for college. Now is the time that many folks are headed back to college, so some of what Ben’s got may be best left for next year, but his biggest advice is to start early. In fact for some scholarships, you may already be too late. He’s got a DVD, called “How to go to college almost for free”, and you can watch that presentation from the website. The site has a blog, featuring articles like “Advice for the parents of scholarship seekers” and “Scram Scammers!” It’s arranged into four basic areas, each of which focuses on a different aspect of getting a college education: Scholarship Quarter talks about getting scholarships, Admission Heights covers topics like how to choose the right college for you, School Success Village helps you out once you arrive on campus with articles like “Slaying the Beast of Procrastination”, and then the Self Empowerment Zone, which seems to center on what to do after college and lifelong learner-type information.
Eddie: Right to Life scholarship.
Cool Gadget: Smartparts 8” WiFi Digital Picture Frame: Digital pictures were the beginning, now just as film photos have frames to live in, digital photos do, too. You may have seen these around, and they’re always a bit pricey, but digital photo frames have come a long way. Some even offer Internet Radio and full web browsers, but most folks just want to see pictures. At $150, this frame isn’t cheap, but it is wireless-enabled. Not only that, it has a dedicated email address. So, if the grandparents have wireless Internet access at home, you can send updated photos of the kids directly to their picture frame, even while you’re still on vacation. Or if you want to use it as a digital sign, you could email updated content to the frame for display.
It's All “Geek” To Me: DRM: DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. It sounds like a good thing, but unless you are either a record label, or movie studio, it’s probably not, because the rights that are being protected are not yours, but the label’s or studio’s. DRM schemes limit what you can do with songs or movies you’ve purchased, because you never actually buy songs and movies, but you license them from the label or studio. This, they say, is necessary to protect their copyright and revenues, because everyday people can’t just start giving away copies of songs. So when you see DRM, think “copy protection”.
Final Thought: At Macworld Tuesday, Apple announced that songs purchased from the iTunes store would no longer have DRM, but they announced three different prices for songs, and that for 30 cents a song, you could download DRM-free versions of music you’ve already bought.
Links
Facebook on Safety:
http://www.facebook.com/safety/
City of College Dreams:
http://www.cityofcollegedreams.org
Smartparts Digital Photo Frame:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336705,00.asp
“DRM” on TechTerms.com:
http://www.techterms.com/definition/drm
PCMagazine’s analysis of the DRM-Free announcement:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2337929,00.asp |
|
|
