Paul Jacobson

I linked to this post on the Google blog this morning from The Daily Maverick newsletter. It is a very interesting story because of what it reveals about what our world will be like in the months and years ahead.

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

…

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

I’m still working on a post about my thoughts about Google and some of its 2009 product launches for another site (its turning into one of those posts which take me forever to finish) but what I found really interesting about this story is the scale of it. Google and a number of other companies have come under attack from within China, very likely the Chinese government, and Google, a private and massive corporation, is taking action against the Chinese government under the guise of sticking to its values and working with the Chinese government.

Google is taking a stand against the Chinese government and is apparently willing to risk turning off the massive Chinese market, practically in retaliation for the attacks on its infrastructure. What I am more curious about is how the landscape will change as Google becomes more pervasive and influential. Will there one day be digital warfare between a corporation and a government?

Mindful of Tony Lankester’s valid comments, this is a rant! It is my opinion and is not researched and I haven’t taken much care to fact check with all parties concerned.

The case between QVC (Quality Vacation Club) and Donn Edwards just irks me for a number of reasons. It is also a lesson in how to deal with litigation thrust on you by bullies. While I respect Donn’s desire to handle this fight himself, he was at a distinct disadvantage from the start because he is not a lawyer and he is playing on a structured and complex playground.

The way QVC’s lawyer managed to take an order against Donn at the start of the matter to prevent him from publishing defamatory remarks is a good illustration of this. While a law abiding person should have an issue with a court order saying he can’t do something illegal, Donn should have opposed this application. QVC’s attorney also should have taken the time to at least tell Donn what time the application would be heard and in which court. Attorneys do have an ethical duty towards unrepresented parties to do at least that much. I wouldn’t be surprised if QVC’s legal team omitted to inform the judge that Donn had made numerous enquires about whether the matter was going to court and, if so, which court and what time. The Johannesburg High Court building contains dozens of court rooms and it isn’t that easy to figure out where something is going on.

QVC’s effort to have Donn found in contempt of court follows on from that initial interim court order and the argument is likely to be that he continued to defame QVC and its trustees in his blog and is therefore violating the court order. I hope that Donn challenges this application properly because this is where it is important to argue that even if what he has been posting is defamatory, it is excusable. The reason I say this is because of how defamation works. Even if QVC can prove that Donn’s blog posts are defamatory, Donn has a range of defences he can raise which would effectively excuse the defamation. Two of these defences include the argument that the comments are true and in the public interest and the other is that the comments are fair comment. In a way, the application to have him found in contempt could be where this whole thing is decided so he (and the rest of us) would be well served if the big guns are thrown at that application. I don’t know how far those proceedings are but I have spoken to Donn and he does have someone assisting him so I am sure he has that in hand.

Generally speaking I’d like to see QVC go down in flames. Like a great many people, I am routinely called about some prize I have one based on a raffle ticket I was stupid enough to buy in 2005 or so (I know this because these idiots consistently get my name wrong). I don’t know which company is behind those calls. It may be QVC or some other crowd. Whoever it is, having one less company like this around is a good thing.

This case also highlights the need for a strong EFF-style organisation in South Africa that has the funding and the resources to get involved in cases this important. We do have the Freedom of Expression Institute which does excellent work. Unfortunately their resources are limited and they can’t take all of these cases on. I am sure this is a source of frustration for them.

I would like to see a strong defence mounted to QVC’s proceedings. I see this as being a test case for the law of defamation in the context of online publishing and blogging in particular. The legal principles are fairly well established but we need to see how the courts will apply them to blogs and other forms of social media. At the very least we need confirmation they will be applied in a way that protects freedom of expression.

Technorati Tags:
defamation, donn edwards, qvc, high court, quality vacation club, freedom of expression

Man Nokia pisses me off sometimes. It produces amazing phones like my very cool E71 and then insists that I use Windows to do little things like update my phone’s firmware! I use a MacBook as my day to day machine and with the exception of issues I have had with failing and failed hard drives and questionable support up the line (although C3, my preferred provider, has been awesome – they just have their hands tied by the morons they have to look to if they want to get stuff done) it has been the best experience I have had with a computer.

The only issue is that Nokia seems to think I should be punished for using a Mac (or anything other than Windows because if I couldn’t use a Mac for some reason, I would be running Ubuntu). Why, oh why, has Nokia not produced a version of its software updater for the Mac???!! Does Microsoft have something on Nokia? Some skeleton in the closet? Preview images of a hideous handheld Nokia can’t afford to have released into the marketplace?

Why does Nokia hate me (and every other non-Windows user)?

Technorati Tags:
e71, nokia, rant, software update

I was reading an article on MyBroadband this morning about how the three main mobile networks in South Africa are exploiting the vagaries of their mobile data products and how those products are billed at the expense of their customers. I have complained about Telkom’s profiteering in the past and the mobile networks are no better.

Here is the scenario: As a mobile data user you probably have a data bundle which specifies a certain amount of data you can use for a reduced price per MB. You may even be using an HSDPA doohickey or even a newer HSUPA device (are these available yet?) having bought into the fast mobile data transfer race MTN and Vodacom seem to be engaged in. So you are out there on the road/in a coffee shop surfing the Web, downloading stuff or doing other things as speeds that make Telkom’s ADSL seem like dial-up, life is good.

One problem though: do you know how much data you are using? The networks don’t provide a service in terms of which you can monitor your data usage in realtime (Vodacom apparently sms’s you to let you know how close you’re getting). To make matters worse, unlike ADSL, your connectivity does not end when you reach the limit of your data package. Your rate per MB just increases to around R2.00 or whatever your out of bundle rate is and on you go, cruising at light speed on the Web until you get your bill at the end of the month and experience a minor coronary. Sorry for you! The networks just don’t seem to have the capacity to tell you how much data you are using although you can be pretty sure the MDs of each network have a casino style counter showing them how much money the network is making in realtime on their office walls!

The next problem is the cost of mobile data. It is hideous. I used to think that this is really Telkom’s fault because their pricing is off the charts and to an extent that is true. It isn’t the whole picture though. Virgin Mobile charges its customers 50c per MB for data. Neotel charges its customers 8c per MB for out of bundle data. While this may well not be a simple case of comparing apples with apples, there must be a fair amount of wiggle room in there to cut prices for mobile data, both in bundle and out of bundle.

The networks do say that they can charge less for data but then users need to “commit to higher volumes of bandwidth” … right! So the main thing is to use higher volumes to compensate for the lower prices and to ensure that the networks keep making the massive amounts of money they are making and you pay pretty much the same anyway (use less for more per MB = use more for less per MB = works out pretty much the same?).

Here is an marketing idea from me, for free: sell a small jar of vaseline with every data package, just to ease the pain a little. You could even see about labelling the jar with your own stickers.

Technorati Tags:
mobile broadband, mtn, neotel, telkom, vodacom, high prices, cost per MB, cost of mobile data, mobile data, cell c, virgin mobile

When you are done watching those videos head over to Justin’s blog and read his post about this. I don’t know if this is how chickens are prepared for my KFC lunches here in Joburg but after watching this video, KFC is off my menu.

I would like to know how Nandos procures their chickens and whether the same cruelty occurs at their suppliers?

Technorati Tags:
animal farm, kfc, kentucky fried cruelty, animal cruelty, chickens, nandos, cruelty to animals

This is just amazing. Amazon no longer offers standard or even expedited shipping to South Africa (of all the African countries it ships to) because our post office is staffed by thieves. Although it doesn’t surprise me, it blows my mind that this has actually happened.

The only shipping option is the most expensive one and involves courier deliveries at a cost of around $40 per shipment and between $5 and $10 per item depending on what you are buying. The best option is probably to start sourcing your Amazon goodness from WantItAll which I understand from the ZA Tech Show guys is the unofficial Amazon distributor locally. I believe that these guys have access to Amazon’s inventory and bypass the post office for incoming stuff. The one thing I am not sure about is whether WantItAll ships locally via the post office or courier? According to the WantItAll blog:

With respect to our service we still have an arrangement with amazon.com whereby we can ship nearly every item from amazon.com into South Africa. Our service is now quite a bit cheaper than that offered by the majority of the retailers here in South Africa, with our book prices seeming to be the most competitive here in South Africa.

We have also worked hard on sourcing well priced DVD’s as well as music CD’s, however there are costs inherit with importing all products from abroad. We do however have a catalogue of over 6million books, cd’s and DVD’s.

We ship from the USA in bulk, on a daily basis, and offer the same service amazon if offering customers here in South Africa (DHL International Priority service) at a fraction of the cost. We’ve seen a HUGE upswing in business since November last year, and with these changes being made to amazon.com and the number of people in South Africa wishing to purchase from online stores, we expect even larger growth this year.

I think I can safely say that I dislike the post office even more than Telkom. The post office also owns the Docex delivery service which is also being used as a vehicle for widespread fraud. It seems that the post office is just an extension of the general theft and corruption that we like to call our public service.

And has the government responded? Of course not. I don’t know why anyone even expects a response.

Bottom line, order your stuff from WantItAll if you don’t want to pay the higher delivery fees or from Amazon using the priority shipping for fast, although expensive, shipping. Of course there is also Kalahari.net …

Update: It turns out my dislike of the post office has skewed my perspective a bit (weird huh?). The post office apparently has made serious inroads into preventing theft along the distribution lines it operates and was pretty surprised that Amazon won’t touch it with a pole.

Simon thinks Amazon is doing this for another reason … watch his space for more as he investigates!

Technorati Tags:
amazon, corruption, south africa, post office, theft, wantitall

TechCrunch makes a good point in its story titled Here’s Our New Policy On A.P. stories: They’re Banned

The A.P. doesn’t get to make it’s own rule around how its content is used, if those rules are stricter than the law allows. So even thought they say they are making these new guidelines in the spirit of cooperation, it’s clear that, like the RIAA and MPAA, they are trying to claw their way to a set of legal property rights that don’t exist today. And like the RIAA and MPAA, this is done to protect a dying business model – paid content.

So here’s our new policy on A.P. stories: they don’t exist. We don’t see them, we don’t quote them, we don’t link to them. They’re banned until they abandon this new strategy, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet.

(Via RSSmeme | Stories Published 24 Hours Ago With At Least 20 Shares.)

I agree with TechCrunch. This land-grabbing approach to content that is starting to become more popular with major content producers is both out of touch with the way people consume content on the Web and goes further than copyright does to protect the content to the point of being nasty about it.

Associated Press, who?

Technorati Tags:
copyright, associated press, ban, persona non grata, techcrunch