Monthly Archive for February, 2007Page 2 of 5

Fuzzy Zoeller Teed Off Over Wikipedia

From Miami Herald:

Pro golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is teed off over what he calls defamatory statements about him on Wikipedia. But instead of suing the popular online reference site, Zoeller is taking a swing at a Miami company. In a lawsuit filed last week in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Zoeller — suing under the name John Doe — alleged the statements were posted from a computer belonging to Josef Silny & Associates.

Josef Silny, the company’s president, expressed surprise when told this week by a Miami Herald reporter that the 1979 Masters champion was suing his company. “I think it’s the most bizarre thing that’s ever happened in my life,” said Silny, who added he doesn’t follow golf and knows Zoeller’s name only from the sports pages. Silny’s firm evaluates foreign nationals’ educational credentials for clients such as the state of Florida.

The case goes into the thorny territory of who is responsible — and can be held liable — for information posted on communal media sites such as Wikipedia.

Zoeller’s attorney, Scott D. Sheftall of Miami, said he had to sue the company because he can’t sue Wikipedia. Federal law says “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as publisher or speaker of any information provided by another. Courts have clearly said you have to go after the source of the information,” Sheftall said. Sheftall added there’s no source to suggest any truth to the statements, which accuse Zoeller of abusing drugs, alcohol and his family.

Wikipedia calls itself the largest reference website on the Internet. Articles on Wikipedia can be edited by anyone who has registered with the site. Wikipedia, though, warns in a disclaimer that it “cannot guarantee the validity of information found here.”

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales declined to comment on the suit. But he said Wikipedia is no different from any Internet message board — meaning objectionable comments have to be posted before they can be removed. “We try to police it pretty closely, but people do misbehave on the Internet,” said Wales, of St. Petersburg.

Miami lawyer Thomas Julin, who defends defamation suits, said even if a Josef Silny & Associates employee posted the offending statements, he doubts the company could be held liable if it didn’t know. ”If it’s totally unrelated to the employer’s business, and it doesn’t have knowledge of the employee’s use of the computer in this way, then there would be no liability for the employer,” Julin said.

Meanwhile, Sheftall said the damage is spreading. The false statements also appear on the website Answers.com. He’s concerned that additional publicity could cost Zoeller endorsements.

The Valentine’s Effect Causes an Abnormal Rise in Divorce Cases

From LegalMatch.com:

LegalMatch.com, the nation’s premier online legal matching company, reports that The Valentine’s Effect, an abnormal rise in the number of divorce cases, is again expected in the days surrounding Valentine’s Day. LegalMatch, which matches tens of thousands of clients to lawyers per month across the US, says the number of people seeking divorce attorneys, as well as attorneys to help with annulments and prenuptial agreements, increases significantly around Valentine’s Day. According to Ken LaMance, associate general counsel for LegalMatch, "Over the last four years we have seen an average increase of 31% (compared to all other weeks) in divorce, annulments and prenuptial cases in the week prior to and directly after Valentine’s Day."

Across the US, population density seems to play a role in the Valentine’s Effect. Philadelphia divorce attorneys saw the biggest rise in 2006 with a nearly 50% increase in new cases in the weeks around Valentine’s Day. Texas, Dallas and Fort Worth saw a rise of 44% and 32%, respectively. The San Francisco Bay Area also saw a 27% increase in divorce, annulment and prenuptial cases and Atlanta saw the smallest spike of all metro areas, at 20%. Interesting, however, is LegalMatch data that suggests that it’s the small towns across America that seem immune to the Valentine’s Effect.

LegalMatch first noticed this phenomenon in 2006, at which time they researched their cases to see if it was just a one-year anomaly. To their surprise, company records indicated that this spike in cases was indeed visible in each of the three years prior. This is not that surprising to attorney Ken LaMance. LaMance says, "The added stress of a holiday where you are all but required to express your love with chocolates, flowers and even jewels, especially so soon after the holidays, can make people anxious and questioning." "It may have something to do with the idealized images of love they see all over the media," continues, LaMance. "As more and more people turn to the Internet when looking for a lawyer, we expect to sift through our close to a million legal cases to uncover more of these statistical trends,"

Breakdown of the Apple iTunes 7 Software License Agreement

From The Small Print Project:

Bigtime thanks to Jesse for taking the time to breakdown the scrapple from the Apple.

Jesse’s interpretations/comments are in italics.

And now, to the license: “APPLE COMPUTER, INC. / SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR iTUNES” revision: “EA0367 / Rev 9/7/06″

———

THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND/OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OF ACCURACY, OF QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS.
*** Quiet enjoyment? Is that a typical tort (thing you can sue someone for)? Or has Apple been sued for not providing “quiet enjoyment” in the past? Might be
interesting to research.

In no event shall Apple’s total liability to you for all damages (other than as may be required by applicable law in cases involving personalinjury) exceed the amount of fifty dollars ($50.00).
*** Remember, this is for a computer that costs around $2,000.00 bucks, and an OS whose big upgrades are in around $100 bucks a pop. If it does something horrible, Apple will pay how much? Fifty bucks.

You may not use or otherwise export or reexport the Apple Software except as authorized by United States law and the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Apple Software was obtained.
*** Even if you bought the software outside the US, from someone who legally exported it from the US, you are still bound by US law. Isn’t this called imperialism, or is that too 20th-century?

You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons.

*** You know, I don’t want to even think about how Apple’s lawyers imagine iTunes can be used to produce biological weapons, but I suppose they have to be careful…

The software from Gracenote (the “Gracenote CDDB Client”) enables this application to do online disc identification and obtain music-related information, including name, artist, track, and title information (”Gracenote Data”)
*** Watch the use of the term “Gracenote Data” very carefully below.
Remember, most of this “Data” is 1) Originally created by the artists themselves - i.e. track names, album names, band names, etc. 2) Was contributed to Gracenote’s database by ordinary users, under the mistaken impression that they were collaborating on something which would remain theirs, collectively, in perpetuity. from online servers (”Gracenote CDDB Servers”) and to perform other functions. You may use Gracenote Data only by means of the intended End User functions of this application software.
*** Hm - what non-”End User functions” is iTunes capable of?

You agree that you will use Gracenote Data, the Gracenote CDDB Client, and Gracenote CDDB Servers for your own personal non-commercial use only. You agree not to assign, copy, transfer or transmit the Gracenote CDDB Client or any Gracenote Data to any third party.

*** Here’s that “Gracenote Data” again - remember - this is data *they did not create* - they are merely trying to claim control of that which was freely given to them with the expectation that they would maintain it as a collection.
YOU AGREE NOT TO USE OR EXPLOIT GRACENOTE DATA, THE GRACENOTE CDDB CLIENT, OR GRACENOTE CDDB SERVERS, EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PERMITTED HEREIN.

You agree that your non-exclusive license to use the Gracenote Data, the Gracenote CDDB Client, and Gracenote CDDB Servers will terminate if you violate these restrictions. If your license terminates, you agree to cease any and all use of the Gracenote Data, the Gracenote CDDB Client, and Gracenote CDDB Servers.
*** “Gracenote Data” - i.e. track names; so, if you email someone the name of a CD you own, which you imported into iTunes, you are “transmit”ing that CD name, which Gracenote claims is their “Gracenote Data”, and so your license to use that “Gracenote Data” would “terminate”, meaning that you would have to remove all the album, artist and track names from all your CDs in iTunes. Does this seem fair to you? Did you think you were agreeing to this?

Use of the Kerbango Tuning Service to sell a product or service, or to increase traffic to your Web site for commercial reasons, such as advertising sales is expressly forbidden.
*** Er, I’m not entirely sure what this service *is* exactly, but how you use iTunes to “increase traffic to your Web site” I don’t know.
You may not take the results from a Kerbango search and reformat and display them,

*** Hm; so does this mean that it violates this license for you to see
two web pages in Kerbango, then go to them in tabs in Firefox? You are displaying both of the sites, and their format (in the Firefox tab bar) is different than in the Kerbango results; would this violate the license? Did you think you were agreeing to this?
or mirror the 3Com’s Kerbango home page or results pages on your Web
site, or send automated queries to Kerbango’s system without express
permission from 3Com.

Without limiting the foregoing, under no circumstances shall 3Com be held liable for any delay or failure in performance resulting directly or indirectly from acts of nature, forces, or causes beyond its reasonable control, including, without limitation, Internet failures, computer equipment failures, telecommunication equipment failures, other equipment failures, electrical power failures, strikes, labor disputes, riots, insurrections, civil disturbances, shortages of labor
or materials, fires, floods, storms, explosions, acts of God, war, governmental actions, orders of domestic or foreign courts or tribunals, non-performance of third parties, or loss of or fluctuations in heat, light, or air conditioning.

*** I love the last item. 3Com is not liable for “fluctuations in air conditioning”. Good to know. And why this is in a license for Apple’s iTunes - who knows….