Berkman in the News

News Corp.'s Talks with Microsoft: A Flawed Deal? (BusinessWeek)

Regulators might look askance at publications acting in concert to dump Google in favor of Microsoft. ''This would raise significant antitrust issues because competitors would be agreeing to limit their competitive conduct in an important respect—delivery of their service to the public,'' says Sam Bayard, assistant director of Harvard's Citizen Media Law Project.

Only extroverts have Facebook happiness factor, Swiss study finds (swissinfo)

'''Research also shows that these profiles, especially for teenagers, are important when it comes to the formation of someone's social identity,' said Urs Gasser...executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.''

New media transform college classrooms (Harvard Magazine)

''The media revolution means new skills to acquire for faculty members, who are already hard-pressed for time and want to know, say, if the start-up cost of learning a new piece of software will be justified. The 2008 book Born Digital by John Palfrey, Ess librarian and professor of law, and Urs Gasser, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Law School, describes the generation of young people who have grown up with digital technology.''

State pressure affecting Internet social networks (France 24)

''There is no jurisdiction on the planet in which companies do not come under some kind of pressure from government in some way to do things that arguably may infringe on the civil liberties of users,'' Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of Global Voices, an international network of blogs said.

New Program Offers Bloggers Free Legal Help (MediaPost)

''The initiative, Online Media Legal Network, aims to assist Web publishers with a broad array of legal issues, ranging from handling complaints about copyright to dealing with threatened defamation lawsuits to filing incorporation papers.''

United Nations Accused of Censoring Criticism of China at Internet Event (CNSNews)

''The poster at the center of the row, advertising the launch of an upcoming ONI book, included a reference to China’s 'Great Firewall.' ONI and other researchers say China – which has the world’s largest number of Internet users, almost 30 percent – oversees the most pervasive and sophisticated state online filtering system in place anywhere.''

UN criticised for stifling net debate (BBC)

''UN security demanded the removal of a poster promoting a book by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) during a session at the Internet Governance Forum in Egypt. The poster mentioned internet censorship and China's Great Firewall.''

IGF 2009 event rattled by UN Security Office (IDG)

''The poster promoting ONI's forthcoming book, 'Access Controlled' was removed by the IGF's organizers because a sentence in the poster apparently violated UN policy.''

A child porn-planting virus: Threat or bad defense? (CNET News)

Phil Malone, a clinical professor at Harvard Law School and director of its Berkman Center Cyberlaw Clinic, agrees that a good forensic investigator should be able to tell the difference between files placed by a virus and ones deliberately downloaded.

NY Case Spotlights Dead Sea Scrolls, Fake E-Mails (New York Times)

Internet impersonation has generated various civil lawsuits, but prosecutions are much more common in cases that involve stealing money, said Sam Bayard, a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.