Spying Goes All 2.0

from the pssst,-slip-me-some-ajax-in-the-dead-drop dept

While the US intelligence community has a long history of expensively botched computer systems, it does seem like they've suddenly became Web 2.0 believers. Last year we wrote about the internal Wikipedia-like offering called Intellipedia, that would let members from different agencies in the intelligence community share information more easily. It appears that things have progressed beyond that as well. They now have a social networking app just for the intelligence community, called A-Space, along with a del.icio.us clone and internal blogs. Of course, it seems like some in the intelligence arena (especially those who happen to be undercover) aren't entirely thrilled with the concept -- but it will be interesting to find out how it develops (as if we'll ever find out). What would be really nice to know is how much these efforts are costing compared to the $600 million that was thrown away on useless computer systems.

Filed Under: cia, fbi, intelligence community, social networking, web 2.0
Companies: cia, facebook, fbi, myspace

Inadvertent Online Resumes Continue To Cause Some Problems

from the broken-off dept

It's pretty common for people to do Google background checks on prospective employees (or potential dates) these days, so it's a little surprising to see people still put all sorts of information that could harm their job prospects online. A substitute judge in Las Vegas lost his position last week, after some people noticed that his MySpace profile listed his personal interests as, among other things, "Breaking my foot off in a prosecutor's ass ... and improving my ability to break my foot off in a prosecutor's ass." A local district attorney alleged that this displayed a bias against prosecutors, and asked that the judge be recused from his criminal cases, but court administrators went a step further and decided not to use his services any more. The judge, or now ex-judge, says that, basically, he was trying to be funny, and that the overstatement on his page was obvious. That may be the case, but given his position -- and his political ambitions -- it's hard to imagine that he couldn't foresee any problems from putting the comments up online.

Filed Under: judges, social networking
Companies: myspace

Veoh Sick Of Waiting For Lawsuit; Pre-emptively Sues Universal Music

from the stop-with-the-threats dept

Speaking of Edgar Bronfman and Universal Music being confused about the market, it appears that the company is being sued by online video site Veoh. This one requires going back a little and looking at the history to understand what's happening. In September last year, Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris made the ridiculous claim that YouTube and MySpace owed Universal Music millions because they were hosting videos that contained Universal's music. Note that this wasn't about downloadable (or even streamed) song files. It's about videos that happen to have Universal music in the background. There's no credible way for Universal to claim that anyone was using music in such a video as a substitute for actually purchasing music. If anything, these videos help promote the music. This was, clearly, a blatant money grab (and one that would actually tend to cut off the promotional value of these videos).

Soon after this, Google bought YouTube, and as a part of the deal had them pay off Universal Music and the other labels. A rumored part of the deal was that the record labels would not sue YouTube, but would sue YouTube competitors. Universal Music obliged, suing smaller sites Bolt and Grouper. There was an attempted settlement, but problems with the settlement quashed a potential acquisition for Bolt recently. A month later, Universal also sued MySpace. Basically, it's decided to shake down every online video service, hoping for some cash settlements even though it would probably lose in court.

Last month, apparently, Universal Music alerted Veoh that it was "considering" suing the company for "massive copyright infringement," though it failed to provide any details. It's a typical shakedown situation. Basically a threat with nothing to back it up other than a "you wouldn't want to end up like those other websites, now would you?" implied threat. Veoh apparently decided to fight back. Rather than wait for Universal Music to file a lawsuit, it's gone to a judge to ask for a declaratory judgment that Veoh's service is perfectly legal under the DMCA safe harbor provisions. It's great to see at least one company stand up to Universal on this one -- especially after the disappointment of Google paying off the record labels on this issue. Hopefully the judge recognizes the issues at stake.

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, infringement, music, safe harbor, videos, youtube
Companies: google, myspace, universal music, veoh, youtube

MySpace Turns A Profit, Barely

from the not-even-in-the-tweens-of-millions dept

Ever since News Corp. bought out MySpace, there have been lingering doubts about the social networking site's profitability. The deal that the company signed with Google did put some of these doubts to rest, as it seemed likely that News Corp. would comfortably recoup its initial outlay. But the fundamental issue of whether a popular social networking site is necessarily a cash cow remains up in the air. Yesterday, News Corp. announced that in this past fiscal year, the company's interactive division (which is mainly MySpace) turned a profit of $10 million on revenue of $550 million. These are incredibly paltry margins. This division is still growing rapidly, so it's understandable that it would be putting a lot of money towards new investments. However, the figures include money from the Google deal, which should drop right down to profits. In other words, while the company may be crowing that the unit is now profitable, it's far from showing that things are truly successful.

Filed Under: social networking
Companies: myspace, news corp

After Accusing Them Of Being Criminals For Years, Record Labels Want Kids To Shill For Them On MySpace

from the somehow,-I-think-not dept

Do the record labels really not realize how much they've pissed off their best customers for the last decade? It would appear so, because they're now hoping that the kids they've alienated for all these years will become shills for them on MySpace and other social networks, pushing all their friends to buy music as well. That might have worked years ago, but these days it seems like plenty of kids have been so turned off by buying music from record labels that treat them like criminals first, that it seems like an uphill road to convince them to not just start buying music, but shilling for the record labels as well. Especially as reports are coming out that legal purchases have stagnated as unauthorized downloads have continued to grow -- it's hard to believe that the record labels are suddenly going to get everyone over to their side this easily.

Filed Under: music, recording industry, social networks
Companies: myspace, riaa, snocap

New Website Measurement System Just A Little Less Useless Than Previous One

from the keeping-score dept

In a bid to improve the relevance of its ratings, Nielsen/NetRatings has announced that it will no longer use page views as its primary metric for measuring the popularity of websites. Instead, it will focus on the amount of time that users spend on the site. Obviously, there have been a lot of problems with the current system, as the use of page views grossly inflates the popularity of some sites, like MySpace, while penalizing sites that aren't refreshed or reloaded as often. As the above article notes, the new system will give YouTube a boost, but will ding Google's main site, which isn't designed to keep users around. Of course, therein lies the flaw with this new measurement system. Google is incredibly profitable and successful, precisely because it does a good job of whisking users away to other sites, either through ads or its search results. The idea of penalizing it because users don't spend a lot of time on the site is absurd. When it comes to TV shows, it may make sense to adopt a uniform measurement system, because all TV shows have the same purpose: to sell ads. Websites, however, have a variety of different business models, so trying to define a standard metric of success is going to prove impossible. Ultimately, the most meaningful measure of a site or service is its profitability, which, unlike page views or time spent, isn't so easily gamed.

Filed Under: measurement, problems
Companies: myspace, nielsen