The Challenges Of Being Social In A Time Of Unrest

What is a website to do when it's become a platform for public outcry and organized opposition? When you are a social site that is being used by both government supporters and reform activists alike you have some tough decisions to make.

Flickr, it seems, has found itself at the center of an ethical quandary. The photo sharing giant owned by Yahoo has taken down photographs uploaded by an Egyptian blogger and human rights activist because the photos violated their terms of service. It seems that  Hossam el-Hamalawy posted the head shots of Egyptian State Police officers to Flickr in the hopes of making his countrymen aware of their identities and keeping them out of the new post revolution government. The problem is that el-Hamalawy did not take the photos himself but rather gained them through a raid on a State Police headquarters by revolutionaries.  Flickr removed the photos saying that el-Hamalawy did not take them himself and was therefore not the rightful owner, this is a violation of their terms.

While I sympathize with the plight of the Egyptian people and understand fully what Mr el-Hamalawy was attempting to do in identifying figures known to be associated with a corrupt regime, I don't think it is Flickr's place to act as middle man in a political debate. They did the only thing that they could do, stick to their terms of service. Perhaps Wikileaks would have been a more appropriate platform for Mr. el-Hamalawy's cause.

Thoughts?

Source: NYTimes.com

Police Seize Gizmodo Editor's Computers

Gizmodo editor, Jason Chen, who blogged about the mysterious nextgen iPhone found in a bar has had his computers seized by a technology related police task force. The investigating officers as well as the San Mateo County’s chief deputy district attorney, Stephen Wagstaffe, have declined to comment on the matter. 

I would say it's looking less likely that this was an Apple publicity stunt... authorities acting on a court order apparently entered Chen's home and removed four computers and two servers. 

More at the NYTimes Bits Blog.

iPad Content Work Around For Canadians

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Canadians will be faced with a copyright issue when the iPad is released north of the border. It's an issue that we're already used to regarding video content from US television networks. The apps, books, and video content that is catching fire with our neighbors to the South, may not be available to us here because of domestic licensing and copyright ownership laws regarding certain content. Bummer! The article goes on to describe the dilemma, but the most valuable piece of information that you'll get is the following:

Workaround Tip:

Globetechnology reviewed the iPad earlier this week using a pre-paid MasterCard purchased at Shoppers and created a U.S. iTunes account with a throw-away U.S. mailing address. That allowed us to download all of the apps available on the U.S. store, including iBooks, the ABC Player and Netflix. Some apps are geo-blocked, such as the ABC Player, but we were able to buy and download books from iBooks.

Enjoy your new iPad!

Oline Gambling Players Have Money Frozen By Courts

Prosecutors in the US have gone to the courts to freeze the accounts of several payment processing companies that work with off shore gambling sites. The move has left millions of dollars payable to tens of thousands of players in accessible. Since the prosecutors have no jurisdiction over the gambling sites themselves, the new tactic is to cut off the cash by going after the companies that do operate within the US, the transaction processors. The effect is that it has become harder and harder for players to send payments or receive winnings, and that puts a clamp on the gaming sites and places doubt in the mind of players. “Now, you not only have to find a way to get money to a place you trust and that’s going to be honest, you have to get money back and hope it doesn’t get seized,” says I. Nelson Rose, a gambling law expert at Whittier Law School.

Source: NY Times Bits blog