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Weekly News Roundup: Birds and a Plane

Melissa Lafsky — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:32:30 +0000

• The science of birds taking down a commercial plane—and how the danger could apply to NASA as well.

• “Scientific and legal integrity” to return to the EPA. And not a moment too soon.

• A ruckus brews over cookies at the White House—and we don’t mean the kind with sugar and sprinkles.

• Facebook graduates from a civil litigation tool to a crime-fighting tool.

• Recession? What recession? Pass the console.

• And not to spoil the pre-inaugural lovefest with bad news or anything, but that little salmonella outbreak has caused 2 more deaths, bringing the total to 5 dead and over 400 sickened.

Don’t Mess With Guyana: President Sics Police on Facebook Impersonator

Melissa Lafsky — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:33:13 +0000

Right now on Facebook, you can find around 20 Britney Spears’, at least 6 George Bushes, a Barack Obama (which is legit!) and a couple Elvises. But you won’t find a profile for Bharrat Jagdeo, the president of Guyana. Why not? Because after learning that an impersonator had created a profile claiming to be him, Jagdeo, the president of the South American nation since 1999, threw a veritable hissy fit, calling the Guyana police in to track down the page’s creator.

Considering that Jagdeo’s phony profile attracted around 170 supporters before it was pulled, and that the page contained no mocking comments, revealing personal information, or doctored photos (the tenets of celebrity impersonations on the Internet), Jagdeo might have even taken the impersonation as a compliment—imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all.

But not so.

Instead, the Guyanan leader issued a “terse statement pointing out that he is not, and never has been, a member of Facebook, or any other social networking site,” and then instructed the police to start an investigation. Meaning that some teenager with a laptop is currently looking for the quickest flight out of Georgetown.

The Internet and politics are now fully intertwined, likely permanently, and it’s borderline naive to think that pranks and unauthorized impersonations of political leaders won’t occur. Which leads us to the “Can’t Beat ‘Em So Join ‘Em” strategy embraced by Obama (and Shaquille O’Neal, and around 10,000 other bold-face names): If phonies are pretending to be you on Facebook (or Twitter, etc.), create a real profile that outs them as phonies.

Your other option? Setting up 24-hour watch on a giant medium that is created and read by billions worldwide—and wasting police time tracking down kids with Internet connections.

Image: Flickr/libraryman

Insert “Superpoke” Pun Here: Facebook Used to Serve Court Documents

Melissa Lafsky — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:18:48 +0000

We’re all for the continued intersection of law and technology, but this is getting a little nuts: A court in Australia has ruled that a lawyer can serve legally binding documents to a couple via Facebook.

Lawyer Mark McCormack tried several times through home visits and email to serve process on a man and a woman who had defaulted on their home loan. Eventually, he looked up their profiles on Facebook, and sent them the lien notice as an attachment via the social networking site.

Granted, by the time McCormack got the documents approved by the court, the couple’s profiles had been removed from public view. Still, the ruling, coming out of no less than the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court, effectively sets precedent for the practice of using Facebook as a binding legal tool. If that trend heads across the ocean, Lord help us all.

Charged With a Crime? Better Check Your Facebook Pictures

Melissa Lafsky — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:29:44 +0000

Earlier this year, the realms of law and new media collided when Lori Drew was hit with federal charges for creating a fake MySpace page and harassing a neighboring teenager, who then committed suicide. In another case of courtrooms v. technology, prosecutors are reportedly searching Facebook and MySpace for photos of defendants to use as character evidence in sentencing hearings.

CNN reports that party photos and pictures of defendants drinking or looking unrepentant have resulted in harsher sentences for people charged in drunk driving accidents, with prosecutors presenting the incriminating pictures as evidence that the defendant lacked remorse.

In one instance, a prosecutor showed the court a Powerpoint presentation of party photos that had been posted on Facebook by a 20-year-old defendant after he nearly killed another driver in a three-car collision. The pictures depicted him at a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit labeled “Jail Bird.” The judge slammed him with a two-year jail sentence.

A girl charged in a fatal drunken driving crash also had photos from her MySpace page downloaded by prosecutors, who used them in their pre-sentencing report. The pictures, posted after the crash, showed her holding a beer bottle and wearing a “a belt bearing plastic shot glasses.” Her sentence was more than five years.

Given that there’s no reason prosecutors can’t or won’t mine these sites for character evidence, technology is in essence handing these defendants a noose to hang themselves with. Still, there’s the danger that a photo taken out of context can be disproportionately damning. In the 20-year-old’s case, he was remorseful enough to drop out of college and write apologies to the victim and her family. But the image of him sticking his tongue out at a party is far more likely to color a judge’s (or anyone’s) perception—a phenomenon that’s been proven by more than anecdotes.

Image: Flickr/libraryman