August 2012

The right to "like" something on Facebook is protected under the First Amendment, say the American Civil Liberties Union and Facebook.

The civil-liberties organization and the social-media company made that argument in amicus briefs filed in a lawsuit filed by Daniel Ray Carter Jr., a Hampton (VA) deputy sheriff. The deputy says he was fired from his job by elected Sheriff B.J. Roberts after he clicked the "Like" button on the Facebook page of Jim Adams, a candidate challenging Roberts in a 2009 election. A federal District Court ruled in May that liking a Facebook page "is insufficient speech to merit constitutional protection." The case is on appeal to the Fourth Circuit, but as of this writing, no oral arguments are scheduled.

San Mateo (CA) -based FreeMonee, a ‘gift incentive network’ startup, has raised another $34 million to enable merchants to drive traffic and sales by giving consumers ‘gifts’ in the form of credits to their credit and debit cards. Founded in 2009, the company works with 100 different merchants (from 30 different categories) and four financial institutions, to give consumers free, no-strings-attached gifts in the form of credits to their credit and debit cards. With the “gifts,” consumers can purchase items of their choice from the merchants offering the gifts. In return, retailers get more store traffic and sales, without slashing prices.

In a surprise order, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said “the court is concerned” that Oracle and Google may have hired authors to comment about their ongoing court case.

Now, Judge Alsup wants the parties to submit a list of their paid propagandists. The unusual request comes months after the “World Series” of intellectual property trials in which Oracle unsuccessfully sued Google for billions. The trial was remarkable not only for the large damage figures but for Oracle’s decision to hire Florian Mueller, a self-described “patent analyst” who also takes money from Microsoft. In his FOSS Patents blog, Mueller wrote a series of one-sided posts over the course of the trial such as “Oracle Java patent rises like Ph0enix from the ashes.” Despite a lack of legal training, Mueller holds himself out as a patent expert to the media and typically does not disclose that he is paid by the companies he reports on. He has also blocked me and other journalists who have questioned his impartiality from viewing his Twitter feed.

Now you can find out who paid for that political advertisement you’ve seen a hundred times – and how much they paid – before the commercial ends.

The Federal Communications Commission began requiring affiliates of the top four broadcast networks in the top 50 television markets to post the contents of their public inspection files on the FCC’s website. The rule was approved in April despite opposition from broadcasters. Broadcast television stations have kept a paper public inspection file on the premises for decades. The file contains the station’s license, permits, details about the owner and other items meant to ensure that the station is serving the needs of its community in exchange for a license to use the airwaves. Children’s programming reports, documents detailing the racial makeup of the station’s employees and a copy of the FCC’s manual, “The Public and Broadcasting,” which explains the rest of the contents can also be found in public file. The political portion of the file contains a record of every request for advertising and whether the request was accepted. If it was, the file contains details of the purchase – all the way down to how many spots will air during a particular show, how much was paid and by whom. The Enquirer visited our local stations to make copies of these political advertising contracts. We gathered everything prior to last Thursday on paper, because the FCC’s order is not retroactive. In the process, we found that WLWT (Channel 5) and WCPO (Channel 9) were not including all of the required information in their files. Specifically, they didn’t include the “class of time” purchased.