MySpace, Web servers not liable for assaults: court

Internet servers like MySpace cannot be held liable when minors are sexually assaulted by people they first meet on a website, a California appeals court ruled in an opinion filed late on Tuesday.

The ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles is consistent with federal appeals court rulings.

It comes a day before the sentencing, also in Los Angeles, of a Missouri woman accused of using a fake MySpace profile to harass a teenage girl. The girl committed suicide.

The appellate court consolidated several similar lawsuits brought by minor girls dubbed "Julie Does" and their parents or guardians, claiming that MySpace failed to implement available age-verification software or set the default security on the girls' accounts to "private."

But the Los Angeles-based appeals court found that a section of the Communications Decency Act immunizes Web servers against the girls' claims of negligence and product liability.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs could not be reached for comment.

A spokeswoman for MySpace, which is owned by News Corp, said in a statement that the company was "pleased" the court had reaffirmed other courts' decisions that it and other websites "cannot be held liable for content posted by, or wrongdoing committed by, individuals who visit our site."

Electronic Frontier Foundation spokeswoman Rebecca Jeschke said the opinion was "very important" in light of recent calls by several states' attorneys general for online classifieds site Craigslist to remove what they claimed were illegal sex ads.

The controversy erupted after two people were allegedly killed by others they met through the online ads.

Social networking sites were also watching the so-called MySpace Mom case in Los Angeles, in which Missouri mother Lori Drew was indicted on charges that included felony conspiracy for harassing her daughter's rival with cruel messages via a fake MySpace profile.

A federal jury cleared Drew of the most serious charges but found her guilty of three misdemeanor counts. She faces up to a three years in prison and fines when she is sentenced on Thursday. The case made worldwide headlines and brought calls for social networking sites to crack down on such activities.

"The idea is, you hold the speaker responsible not the soapbox," Jeschke said. "If you want any kind of social interaction on the Internet this is very important."

The opinion is Julie Doe II et al v. MySpace Inc, Case No. B205643, Second District Court of Appeals.

(Agencies)

Web retailers, states tussle over tax rules

In a big break for online shoppers, Web retailers generally don't have to charge sales taxes in states where they lack a store or some other physical presence.

Increasingly, states aching under the weight of the recession are seeking a way around that rule. Because companies like Amazon.com Inc. get help drumming up sales from online affiliates 鈥?people who link to products on their blogs, promote Web shopping deals and offer coupons 鈥?several states say the Internet retailers should charge sales taxes in states where those affiliates are based.

The financial benefits may not be quite what the states anticipate, though. Rather than gearing up to collect taxes, Amazon and other Web retailers are simply shutting down their affiliate marketing programs. As the small businesses that participate in these programs get cut off, a state could lose tax revenue rather than add to it.

A look at what the affiliates do helps explain why. They're just one of several methods that e-commerce companies have for driving visitors to their Web sites, so nixing them is not necessarily a big loss for the companies.

It's a far bigger deal to people like Rich Owings.

By running Web sites like GPSTracklog.com from his home in Asheville, N.C., Owings serves as an affiliate for Amazon and other companies. Owings, 53, spends most of his time reviewing GPS gadgets and covering industry news. He links to navigation products of his choosing on Amazon's site, and if his readers click through and buy one, he gets a commission.

Owings estimates he brought in about $80,000 in affiliate revenue from various companies in 2008, about $50,000 of which came from Amazon. After Amazon recently shuttered its North Carolina affiliate program in response to that state's attempt to collect sales taxes, Owings said he and his wife were thinking about heading elsewhere to run their business.

"We're terrified," he said. "We just bought a house here a year ago and we're looking at having to move out of state just to keep our business going."

The amount of money at stake overall for state governments is somewhat murky. According to a recent University of Tennessee study, uncollected state and local taxes from online sales could total $7 billion this year. However, only a small part of this would stem from consumer purchases, because transactions between businesses make up the bulk of e-commerce sales. (Consumers are generally supposed to pay a "use tax" themselves on online purchases, but few do.)

Because any extra revenue is precious, several states, such as New York, have passed laws seeking to cash in on Web retailers' affiliate relationships, while others are considering doing so.

Amazon cut off affiliates in North Carolina in late June, anticipating legislation requiring it to collect sales tax will soon pass there. The company has also stopped working with affiliates in Rhode Island and Hawaii because of similar laws that already have passed. Discount retailer Overstock.com Inc. and jewelry marketer Blue Nile Inc. also closed down affiliate programs in Hawaii, Rhode Island and North Carolina, and Overstock stopped working with affiliates in New York last year.

(Hawaii's Republican governor, Linda Lingle, vetoed the bill Wednesday, so Amazon, Blue Nile and Overstock.com said Thursday they plan to reinstate affiliates there if the state's Democratic majority does not override Lingle's decision.)

Rebecca Madigan, founder of the Camarillo, Calif.-based Performance Marketing Alliance, which represents affiliate marketers, called the new state rules "pretty devastating." Echoing opinions of several online retailers and associates, Madigan argues that the nation's estimated 200,000 affiliate marketers are advertisers, not salespeople.

"They don't deliver product, they don't take any money from a consumer, and most of the time they don't even know who the consumer is," she said. Because the tax crackdown could curtail the business generated by affiliates, "the states are sort of shooting themselves in the feet," she said.

That's not how the states see it. In 2008, New York started requiring retailers to collect sales tax if they solicit business in the state by paying anyone there for leading customers to them. Matt Anderson, spokesman for the state's Division of the Budget, said New York expected the change would bring in $23 million for the fiscal year that ended March 31, and estimates $34 million for the current fiscal year.

"We believe we have to keep the tax code in line with technology, and that online retailers shouldn't have an unfair competitive advantage over off-line businesses," he said.

Amazon and Overstock sued New York in 2008, arguing it unlawfully imposes tax-collection obligations on out-of-state entities. A judge dismissed the cases in January, and Amazon is collecting taxes in New York. The company has not shuttered its associate program there.

North Carolina expects it could collect an additional $13.2 million in the coming fiscal year on sales generated by Web retailers that use affiliates, and from a new sales tax on downloads of music, video and software, according to a legislative fiscal analysis.

But while states may see these marketing programs as a way to shore up budgets, they're just one way these companies drive visitors to their Web sites. Companies also use ads on Google and links on comparison shopping sites.

Patrick Byrne, head of Salt Lake City-based Overstock, said sales made through affiliates account for less than 10 percent of Overstock's revenue. The amount of business it will lose by cutting about 8,000 of its 25,000 affiliates loose is a "small fraction" of what it would have to start collecting in taxes if it kept the affiliates, he said.

Judy Browning, 66, worries she's done collecting affiliate revenue from Amazon for her Vegetable Goddess Web site, which she runs from Honolulu. Browning did not want to say how much money she had been getting from Amazon, other than to call it a "tremendous" opportunity for her.

"If I don't get paid by Amazon, then I'm not making money," she said. "If I'm not making money, I can't spend money."

(Agencies)

China to start building first 10 million-kw-level wind power station in mid-July

LANZHOU, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Workers would begin construction on China's first 10 million-kw-level wind power station in mid-July in the far northwestern city of Jiuquan, Gansu Province, a local official said Sunday.

The would-be largest wind power station was designed to have an installed capacity of 5.16 million kw by the end of 2010, 12.71 million kw by the end of 2015 and 20 million kw by the end of 2020, said Wu Shengxue, deputy head of the Jiuquan Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

"The installed capacity will eventually reach 40 million kw," he said. "Total costs on the project are predicted to exceed 120 billion yuan (17.6 billion U.S. dollars)."

"It will become another landmark project in China's 'Western Development' strategy after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and several West-to-East transmission projects of natural gas, petroleum and electricity," he said.

As a support for the wind power station construction, local authorities would launch other projects to manufacture air blowers, turbine blades and other equipment, he said.

The government of the remote Gansu Province aims to build "Three Gorges on the Land" with its abundant resources of wind power, Wu said. Under its blueprint, the 2020 installed capacity could surpass the current capacity of 18.2 million kw enjoyed by the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower station by total capacity.

In Jiuquan, an area of about 10,000 square km could be developed for wind power generation with a capacity of at least 40million kw, Wu said.

To date, six wind farms are in operation in the city with a total installed capacity of 660,000 kw, he said.

"By the end of this year, the installed capacity in the city is expected to exceed 1 million kw," he added.

Police releases US apple store shooting incident video

BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Arlington County police continued to search for the man who shot an Apple store employee in Clarendon, Washington D.C. on Friday, by releasing a surveillance video of the incident, according to media report Monday.

The video of the incident shows the employee, at the open back door of the Arlington, Va., Apple store at 2700 Clarendon Blvd. about 10:15 a.m. The suspect enters with a handgun and leads the employee off-camera. A second video clip shows the man carrying a gun and leaving through the back door.

Police described the suspect as an African American male in his 20s or 30s, with a medium build and facial hair. He left the area on foot and was wearing a light-colored, short-sleeve shirt, light-colored pants and a dark baseball cap with lettering.

Police have released two surveillance tapes on YouTube of the suspect entering the store and of the suspect fleeing the scene.

The victim, a 26-year-old woman, wounded to the right shoulder, remained hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

Police say the incident does not appear to be an attempted robbery. Someone rang a doorbell at a back door of the store, according to police. A short time later, another employee heard a gunshot. No other people were injured.

(Agencies)

Happy jailbreaking, happy unlocking

BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Only a couple of days after George Hotz became the first hacker to release a jailbreak app for the iPhone 3GS on Windows, there's a Mac-compatible version out too.

Hotz came to fame (or infamy) in the online community Monday when he released the first iPhone unlocking software in 2007. He was the original iPhone jailbreaker which he did as a 17-year old from his New Jersey home.

Nineteen year old George "Geohot" Hotz has done it again. Only two weeks after launch, the iPhone 3GS was jailbroken. Hotz released the jailbreaking application, which he calls "PurpleRai1n."

Apple has had two years to lock down their new device. The current jailbreak is only for Windows and is quick to install but needs to be re-applied after restarts. This time, Hotz got some help from two fellow coders to be able to please the Mac folks, but he also made some improvements to the Windows version.

Earlier this week, the iPhone Dev team mentioned that a SIM unlock wouldn't be that difficult either. The baseband firmware is very similar to that of the previous generation's iPhone. They are still working on their iPhone hacking software, UltraSn0w, which will allow iPhone users to use other SIM cards with the iPhone 3GS. Some said as much as one third of all iPhones were SIM-unlocked.

It is advantageous for Apple to leave the iPhone open to be unlocked, that is why it is so easy.

(Agencies)

S Korea's IT exports fall in June

SEOUL, July 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's exports of information technology (IT) products fell 11.6 percent on year in June due to sluggish overseas sales amid the global economic slump, the government said Monday.

According to the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, South Korean exports of semiconductors, mobile phones and other IT products decreased 11.6 percent on year to 10.17 billion U.S. dollars last month.

Imports, on the other hand, decreased 17.1 percent to mark 5.35billion U.S. dollars to mark a surplus of 4.82 billion U.S. dollars, the ministry said.

Although IT industry exports made an on-year fall, the rate of negative growth slowed down, an official at the ministry said.

IT exports declined 39.2 percent on-year in December but contracted 26.8 percent in March and 17.1 percent in May, which may be hinting at some improvements in overseas demand, the official said.

During the first half of 2009, IT exports totaled 52.66 billion U.S. dollars, while imports posted 28.98 billion U.S. dollars for a surplus of 24.58 billion U.S. dollars.

UK spy chief's family details posted on Facebook

LONDON 鈥?He's the spy who came in from the beach.

Holiday snapshots and family details about the newly appointed head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency have been removed from a Facebook page after a newspaper told the government about them.

Pictures from the social networking Web site published in the Mail on Sunday newspaper show John Sawers posing with his children, wearing a Santa hat and playing Frisbee on a beach.

The paper said the information was posted by Sawers' wife on her Facebook page. It included vacation photos, details about the couple's three children and the location of their London home.

Shelley Sawers' page has been removed from the site, although a cached page can still be viewed that shows a picture of the spy chief's wife.

Some politicians called the details a security lapse 鈥?but others said they revealed nothing but a few mildly embarrassing domestic details.

"It's not a state secret that he wears Speedo swimming trunks," said Foreign Secretary David Miliband. "For goodness' sake, let's grow up."

The Foreign Office would not comment further on the case.

But Conservative lawmaker Patrick Mercer, who heads Parliament's counterterrorism subcommittee, said the revelations left Sawers open "to criticism and blackmail."

John Sawers, 53, was named last month as the new head of the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence agency. A former spy, diplomat and foreign policy adviser to ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, he is currently Britain's ambassador to the United Nations.

He is due to take up his new post in November.

Until the 1990s, the identity of the MI6 chief, known as C, was kept secret. Until 1992, Britain's government refused even to confirm the organization's existence.

Authorities have gradually become more open about MI6 and its domestic sister service MI5 in a bid to shed the agencies' cloak-and-dagger image and attract a wider range of staff.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Edward Davy called for an inquiry into the lapse.

"Normally, I would welcome greater openness in government for officials or politicians, but this type of exposure verges on the reckless," he told the Mail on Sunday.

(Agencies)