Online libel case stirs up free speech debate

An Illinois politician's attempt to unmask the identity of an e-mail poster who allegedly made disparaging remarks about her teenage son in an online forum is stirring a debate about free speech rights on the Internet. The paper had run a story describing a bitterly contested local election that Stone was running in. The case involves Lisa Stone, Trustee of the Village of Buffalo Grove, Il. According to a story in the Chicago Tribune , someone anonymously posted "deeply disturbing" comments about Stone's 15-year old son earlier this year in a local newspaper.

In response to that story an individual using the name Hipcheck15 posted comments that were critical of Stone. Those comments, in turn, evoked allegedly defamatory statements directed against Stone's son by Hipcheck15, the Tribune story said. The comments apparently prompted Stone's son to go online and post comments in defense of his mother. The paper did not say what exactly Hipcheck15 wrote, but it quoted Stone as describing the comments as being "vile" and "shocking." Stone did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request from Computerworld seeking comment for this story. In response to an order from the court, the paper turned in the IP address for Hipcheck15. Stone then obtained a similar order from the circuit court judge that asked Hipcheck15's Internet service provider, or ISP, to reveal the true identity of the person to whom the IP address was assigned to. As part of an effort to file a defamation lawsuit against Hipcheck15, Stone approached the Cook County Circuit Court and asked it to order the newspaper to turn in the true identity of the poster, the Tribune said.

According to the Tribune, the ISP late turned in the identity of Hipcheck15 to the court last month. Stone apparently has insisted that all she is trying to do is protect her son and other children from being similarly attacked online. A hearing is now scheduled for November 7 to decide whether the judge should provide Stone with Hipcheck15's true identity. She is hoping the case will serve as a deterrent against similar attacks. Individuals who libel or defame others online, anonymously or otherwise, are just as exposed to lawsuits as they are in the physical world and cannot expect First Amendment rights to automatically protect them. "Saying you're a lousy professor is one thing.

Eugene Volokh, professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles' School of Law, said the case serves as another reminder that online anonymity does not automatically provide immunity against libel charges. But saying you molest 13-year olds is completely different," he said. Judges in other cases have shown a willingness to do just that if, in their opinion, the complaints had merit. Though one might use a pseudonym to conceal their true identity a court can force an ISP to unmask them in such cases, Volokh said. In a similar case earlier this year, a Texas circuit court judge ordered an online news aggregation site to turn over identifying information on 178 people who had anonymously posted allegedly defamatory comments about two individuals involved in a sexual assault case.

William Pieratt Demond, a partner at Connor & Demond PLLC, a law firm in Austin that is representing the couple, today said that the online site has since turned over information that has so far led to three people being identified as tied to the comments. The two individuals, who were acquitted of all charges, had claimed they had been subjected to intense and inarguably defamatory comments in the online forum. Libel lawsuits have been filed against all three, Demond told Computerworld today. Judges have to make the decision whether an online comment reflects just a personal opinion which is protected, or if it crosses the line and becomes defamatory. "Courts have said that because revealing a speaker's identity could end up deterring people from speaking up, we are going to require some showing whether there is a cause," he said. In the Stone case, it is hard to know how much merit her complaint has, Volokh said. Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said the case was troubling. "We think anonymous speech on the Internet is really critical and needs to be protected," Yohnka said.

Yohnka warned against a growing tendency by corporations and individuals to use defamation claims as a way to get the courts to force ISPs to unmask anonymous online commentators. "Saying something is defamatory shouldn't be the trigger" for deciding when someone should be unmasked he said. It has traditionally been one way in which people have chosen to express themselves on political and social issues, he said. Corporations and public figures in particular need to show they have a prima facie case before they are allowed to seek the identity of an anonymous poster, Yohnka said.

Windows 7 steals biggest chunk of share from XP

Microsoft's Windows ran to stay in place last month as Window 7's market share gains made up for the largest-ever declines in Windows XP and Vista, data released today by Web metrics firm Net Applications showed. But it was Microsoft's ability to retain its share in the face of record slumps in its older editions that was the news from Net Applications. By Net Applications' numbers, Windows 7's gains were primarily at the expense of Windows XP. For each copy of Vista replaced by Windows 7 during November, more than six copies of XP were swapped for the new OS. Meanwhile, Apple's Mac OS X lost share during November.

Even though Windows XP lost 1.45 percentage points to end November with a 69% share, and Vista fell 0.2 percentage points to 18.6%, Windows kept its total operating system share at 92.5%, the same as in October. For Vista, November marked the second time in three months that the often-maligned operating system lost share. The declines in XP and Vista were both records in Net Applications' tallies, which because of a change in methodology instituted last July go back only two years. That trend, if accurate, means that the 2007 operating system has peaked, and will now, like XP before it, begin a slow, inexorable decline as it is replaced by Windows 7. Give Windows 7 all the credit for holding Microsoft's line. Windows 7 has been on a share roll since it debuted, according to Net Applications.

In the first full month after its Oct. 22 public launch, Microsoft's newest operating system increased its share by 1.8 percentage points, ending November with 4%, more than enough to make up for the losses by XP and Vista. Less than three weeks after its release, Windows 7 had acquired a slice of the OS pie that it took Vista five months to reach. Currently, about three of every four Windows PCs runs XP, while one-in-five runs Vista. Neither XP nor Vista will vanish overnight if Net Applications' data is any indicator. Only about one in every 23 Windows systems is powered by Windows 7. Almost as unusual as Windows remaining in place was the Mac OS X's dip. Most months, Mac OS X gains ground on Microsoft, albeit by small margins: Over the last 12 months, Apple's OS has increased its share by an average of less than 0.1 percentage points.

By Net Applications' estimate, Apple's operating system finished November with 5.1%, a decline of 0.16 percentage points, the largest since February 2009 and only the third negative number this year. Linux, on the other hand, came up a winner last month, returning to the 1% share mark for the first time since July. It then weights share by the estimated size of each country's Internet population. Linux's all-time high in Net Applications' rankings was May 2009, when it nearly reached 1.2%. Net Applications measures operating system usage by tracking the machines that surf to the 40,000 sites it monitors for clients, which results in a pool of about 160 million unique visitors each month. November's operating system data can be found on Net Applications' site.

Verizon updates Droid software; Users hope it fixes echo problem

An over-the-air software update to the Droid smartphone started yesterday, but it wasn't clear whether the 14 enhancements address a voice echo problem that hundreds of users complained about in online forums. The enhancements come from Verizon Wireless, Motorola and Google, which is behind the Android operating system that runs on the Motorola Droid. The much-anticipated update went to a "small percentage of handsets" yesterday and the update, identified as ESD56, will be phased in over the next week or so, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman confirmed early today via e-mail.

An update to the Droid Eris smartphone from HTC is "planned but a date has not yet been confirmed," the spokeswoman added. However, it remains unclear whether the list of official fixes offers any relief to hundreds of customers who have complained of a voice echo heard by recipients of calls made from Droid phones. The Motorola Droid update is based on Google's release of a software developer kit for Android 2.0.2 on Dec. 6. The most noticeable modifications improve the Droid's camera autofocus capability and the phone's voice reception, the spokeswoman added. At least 300 comments at a Motorola online support forum refer to the subject, " Droid phone sound quality is not great ," and most comments refer to audio echo problems noticed by people whom Droid users are calling. Despite the many online complaints of a similar problem from Droid users, he couldn't get Verizon store officials to listen to him, he said. "Each time I returned to the store, now three times, I have been treated increasingly like an Android from out of space until [a recent] Friday when I threw a nutty in the store and screamed out for attention," he wrote. "The techs were clueless." Davis said his son, an engineer at Cisco Systems Inc., helped him decrease the echo somewhat by adjusting the phone's settings so that when the echo shows up, Davis must fidget with the speaker button to lessen the echo.

One Motorola Droid user, John Davis, said he has enjoyed all aspects of his Droid except for the phone itself. "Almost from day one there has been an annoying echo primarily with the person on the receiving end," he wrote in an e-mail to Computerworld . Davis, a physician, bought his phone the first day it was available at a Verizon store near Boston. But Davis was still awaiting the update, which was rumored to start on Dec. 11, but now appears to have started four days earlier. However, the official update documentation says only that one of the 14 improvements is listed as "audio for incoming calls is improved." A separate improvement says that Bluetooth functions are improved with "background echo ... eliminated" but only in reference to Bluetooth usage. Davis said his son believes the update is designed to address the issue, and so do many on an online forum. The full list also includes improvements to OS stability, battery life and camera auto focus.

Ironically, many reviewers of the Motorola Droid found it has superlative sound quality , so the echo problem could be a function of networks as well as the Droid, many forum users have noted. Davis said he had no significant problems with his camera, but is still eager to have the update for the camera focus. A Motorola support forums manager, identified online only as Matt, called attention to the update yesterday with a link to the separate Motorola forum on sound quality, implying that the improvements could help the echo problem. Verizon has noted that to get the free update, the Droid device needs to have 40% or more power available if it's not connected to an external power source and 20% power available to it if connected to a power source. The Verizon spokeswoman did not answer directly whether the updates fix the echo problem, saying only that descriptions of the audio problem on forums are "subjective," but she offered to provide a fuller explanation later.

Microsoft shows off Bing tool for measuring ad effectiveness

Microsoft on Monday demonstrated a new tool for its Bing search engine that will allow advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their ads with online users. Mehdi pointed out that statistics show that 39 percent of Web users do 65 percent of the online searches, so it would be beneficial for advertisers to see which of those "heavy users" are targeting certain ads, versus which ads are favored by "light users." The tool Microsoft created shows where the interest in a marketing or advertising campaign is specifically coming from, he said. Speaking at the IAB MIXX Conference and Expo 2009 in New York on Monday, Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Audience Business group, showed off what he called a "user-level targeting" tool that allows Microsoft to see which search-based ads that appear in the Bing search engine are getting the most traffic and from where. "What we're doing with Bing for vigorous measurement is we're matching the exact ad online with the exact user," he said.

This measuring ability for Bing was demonstrated as part of Mehdi's presentation, in which he discussed how Microsoft is applying lessons it's learned from studying advertising campaigns and creating technology to reflect that learning. You have to pick and focus." Microsoft revamped and rebranded its Live Search engine "Bing" in June, and making it more effective for search advertising is something the company continues to work on, Mehdi said. One of those lessons was what he characterized as "relentless measurement and optimization" to find out what ads are most effective so they can be better targeted to their proper audience. "One of the big things is trying to build a loyal fan base for the product," he said. "You can't just go out and put your message everywhere. It was unclear from Mehdi's presentation whether this technology is available for advertisers using Bing today or whether it's just something Microsoft is using internally. This kind of ability to measure what kinds of online advertising is working with users is becoming essential as more and more business is being done on the Web. A representative from Microsoft's public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom, declined to answer follow-up questions about the technology or his presentation.

In fact, Microsoft competitor Adobe Systems - an executive from which spoke before Mehdi on Monday - last week said it was purchasing Web analytics company Omniture to build measuring technology directly into Adobe's tools for creating online media.

Western Digital launches WD TV Live

Western Digital announced Tuesday the launch of its new WD TV Live HD Media Player. Available now for $149.99, the WD TV Live hopes to transform your television into a home media hub. The WD TV Live is an upgrade over the previous WD TV model, now adding Ethernet connectivity and digital theater sound to its extensive features.

The concept remains the same: you plug the WD TV into a television set and any external hard drive. Western Digital says it designs products with users in mind and has paid particular attention to how user friendly the UI is. The WD TV is designed to take your media files from your external hard drive and play them on your TV. The device supports many different types of audio and video files, such as H.264, MKV, VIDEO_TS folders, and FLAC audio, and can play back HD video in full 1080p resolution. While providing high definition capabilities, it's designed to be easily navigable for the average user. First, it adds Digital Theater Sound (DTS) support (it previously supported Dolby Digital) for surround sound capabilities. Since the introduction of the original WD TV, the Western Digital team has sought consumer input, said Seema Lindskog, a director of marketing for WD. In addition to offering an improved UI with a movie preview screen feature, the WD TV Live has two major advantages over its predecessor.

With the addition of an Ethernet port, the WD TV Live can access popular Web services such as YouTube, Pandora, and Flickr with the click of a button. While some people may see this an oversight, Western Digital seems to be targeting this product for users with large media libraries who would quickly fill up a built-in hard drive. It can also stream content from an external hard drive, a Mac, or a Windows PC. The Ethernet capabilities of the WD TV Live make it easy to centralize your media, though the WD TV Live itself does not have any storage capacity. Also, not including storage in the unit allows the company to keep the price down.

Benioff plays nice to Oracle at OpenWorld

Attendees packed into a presentation by Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff at Oracle's OpenWorld conference Tuesday, but those hoping the executive would deliver some of his trademark trash talk toward Oracle left the room disappointed. But Benioff made no response to Ellison's jibes on Tuesday, instead referring to the companies' "fantastic relationship" and thanking Oracle for being "magnanimous" enough to let Salesforce.com appear at OpenWorld. Some sort of throwdown seemed possible, even likely, given that during a shareholder meeting last week, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison mocked Salesforce.com's offering as a "little itty-bitty application" that is dependent on Oracle's own technology. Salesforce.com is a sponsor of the show.

Since then, the two executives have repeatedly slammed each other's business model, with Benioff declaring on-premise software a dying model and Ellison famously mocking cloud computing on a number of occasions, even as his own company tests those waters. Ellison was an early investor in Salesforce.com, but left the vendor's board after he and Benioff had a falling out. Their history caused surprise and curiosity among some observers, who questioned why Oracle would allow such a direct rival to tout its products at OpenWorld. And during the shareholder meeting, Ellison said he could provide a long list of customers who once used Salesforce.com but "chucked it out" in favor of Oracle's own on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) software. Indeed, beyond slamming Salesforce.com's technological achievements, Ellison has made it a point during recent earnings conference calls to cite deals it won against the on-demand vendor.

But in the end, Benioff seemed more intent Tuesday on building bridges than burning them. The two companies announced a partnership on Monday for selling Salesforce.com CRM and related services to small and medium-sized businesses. At one point, he was joined onstage by Dell CEO Michael Dell. Salesforce.com and Dell already had close ties, having used each other's products for some time. Dell said its experience running Salesforce.com will give it an edge when working with new customers.

Former DHS cybersecurity chief points finger at Congress

Part of the blame for continued cybersecurity problems in the U.S. government and beyond lies with Congress and its "scattershot" approach to dealing with the issue, a former assistant secretary for cybersecurity at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Thursday. Some committees are pushing for more cybersecurity responsibility outside of DHS, while other committees are resisting changes, he said during a press briefing. Congress has often provided aggressive oversight of cybersecurity efforts at DHS and elsewhere, but there are continued turf battles between various congressional committees, and lawmakers introduce multiple pieces of legislation that sometimes conflict with each other, said Gregory Garcia, who served as assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at DHS from late 2006 to late 2008. Garcia mentioned eight congressional committees that have responsibility for a portion of cybersecurity policy, and he called on congressional leadership to coordinate cybersecurity efforts. Congressional leaders "need to bring their committees together, sit them around the table ... and make sure everybody understands what is their jurisdiction, what's their responsibility, and what are the policy gaps," Garcia said. "Have a coordinated, leadership-driven process, rather than letting all these committees go off freelancing with their next great idea." If one committee is pressing for the U.S. Department of Justice to have more authority and a second is pressing for DHS to have more authority, "we're not making progress, we're going off scattershot," Garcia added.

There were also significant management problems at DHS, partly because the agency is only six years old, Garcia said, but a large problem was that agency leaders were sensitive about criticism from Congress, and wouldn't let lower level staffers make the decisions they had expertise to make. "Decisions were made at the political level, not at the civil servant level," he said. Garcia's time at DHS was marked by hypercriticism from a Democrat-controlled Congress of the agency, with its leadership appointed by former Republican President George Bush, he said. Some of the congressional criticism of DHS seemed "cynical," added Garcia, now president of Garcia Strategies, a consulting group. The House committee has hosted several hearings focused on cybersecurity in recent years. Representatives of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee didn't immediately respond to a request for a reaction to Garcia's comments.

Garcia's criticism of the cybersecurity policy process came two days after the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report saying that federal IT systems remain vulnerable to a variety of cyberattacks. Agencies did not consistently authenticate users to prevent unauthorized access to systems; did not encrypt sensitive data; and did not log and monitor security-relevant events, the GAO said. Security audits have "identified significant weaknesses in the security controls on federal information systems, resulting in pervasive vulnerabilities," the GAO report said. "GAO has identified weaknesses in all major categories of information security controls at federal agencies." During 2008, audits found weaknesses at information security controls at 23 of 24 major U.S. agencies, the GAO said. Agencies have failed to fully implement information security programs, the report said. Many large companies should have enough incentives to protect their data, Kessler said. "I'm not sure regulations or fine are necessarily going to compel boards of directors or senior IT executives," he said. "They can lose everything with one vulnerability." However, Congress may be able to create some incentives for medium-sized businesses that don't have the resources to properly address cybersecurity, Kessler added. Asked what Congress can do to help private companies better protect themselves, Garcia and Alan Kessler, president of intrusion protection vendor TippingPoint, questioned whether new regulations would be productive.

Garcia also questioned whether new regulations would be effective, but he warned that they may be coming. Some U.S. industries still don't take cybersecurity seriously enough, he said. "There may be a time when the Congress gets fed up ... and will declare market failure and regulate," he said.