(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project)
UPDATE: After making some changes from the proposal discussed below, the FTC published the new regulations in the Federal Register on Oct. 5, 2009, with the new rules scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 1. More details here.
What do Harry Potter books, The Blair Witch Project, Razor scooters, the Ford Focus and Hebrew National hot dogs have in common? In the late 1990s and early 2000s, these brands -- or, more precisely, the marketers behind them -- were at the cutting edge of a new advertising technique: "buzz marketing." A decade later, the government's efforts to control such marketing techniques may have impact on blogs and other citizen media.
Jun 29, 2009
Jun 15, 2009
Crime Online May Mean More Time
(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project)
In Hawaii, a 22-year-old former hospital worker was recently sentenced to one year in jail, five years probation and 200 hours of community service on a felony charge of "unauthorized computer access to confidential records" (apparently under Haw. Rev. Stat. §708-892, Computer damage in the first degree) after she obtained a patient's records stating that he was HIV-positive and gave them to the patient's sister-in-law, who posted them on her MySpace page. The prosecutor had recommended a sentence of only 30 days, but Circuit Judge Randal Lee reportedly said during sentencing that "Young people in this society have to realize that the Internet is not something that can be taken advantage of. You can't use the Internet to do unlawful conduct."
In Hawaii, a 22-year-old former hospital worker was recently sentenced to one year in jail, five years probation and 200 hours of community service on a felony charge of "unauthorized computer access to confidential records" (apparently under Haw. Rev. Stat. §708-892, Computer damage in the first degree) after she obtained a patient's records stating that he was HIV-positive and gave them to the patient's sister-in-law, who posted them on her MySpace page. The prosecutor had recommended a sentence of only 30 days, but Circuit Judge Randal Lee reportedly said during sentencing that "Young people in this society have to realize that the Internet is not something that can be taken advantage of. You can't use the Internet to do unlawful conduct."
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