Cody Taylor

Is Yelp using negative user reviews to coerce small businesses into buying its advertising? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a media company had tried such an innovative approach.

With the Pirate Bay trial half over, the defendants have reason to be hopeful. First, the government stunned observers on Tuesday by dropping half the charges in the joint criminal-civil prosecution, resulting in a partial acquittal.

The vast majority of apps downloaded from the App Store are in use by less than 5% of users after one month has passed since the download, according to an analytics firm that is also shedding light on other aspects of the business.

With a market that is anxiously sizing up the netbook platform – – driven in large part by Intel’s low-cost Atom processors – – the gOS offers a simple proposition: A simple-to-install, free operating system integrated with Mozilla and Google technology for fun and productivity.

A great debate is raging as to what the future of video distribution will look like. On one side of the debate are those who claim that physical discs like DVDs, Blu-ray, and whatever format will eventually supplant Blu-ray, will always deliver a superior viewing experience than anything that will be available via streaming or on-demand content.

Mike writes “Chicago Mayor Daley has stated that if his Olympic dreams come true, by 2016 there will be a surveillance camera on ‘every street corner in Chicago.’ Just like in London, elected officials all over America appear to be happily advancing a ‘surveillance society’ without regard for civil rights or privacy concerns. Ray Orozco, executive director of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications is quoted as saying, ‘We’re going to grow the system until we eventually cover one end of the city to the other.'” Chicago has been developing its surveillance network for some time, but it seems they plan to continue increasing the scale.

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Hodejo1 writes “On the old Perry Mason TV shows, it was a common sight to see someone burst into the crowded courtroom at a dire moment and confess aloud that they, not the defendant, killed so-and-so. In reality, courts do not allow evidence to enter trial without a chance for the opposing council to view it and for a judge to rule on their admissibility. Yet, in the fifth day of the Pirate Bay trial, lawyers for the prosecution again tried to sneak in surprise evidence while questioning defendants. The judge put his foot down this time, telling lawyers for the state, ‘If you have documents which you eventually plan to use, you need to hand them over now.’ The prosecution continues to struggle in court. In one humorous moment, prosecutor Håkan Roswall tried to show how ‘hip’ he was with technology when he questioned defendant Peter Sunde. ‘When did you meet [Gottfrid] for the first time IRL?’ asked the Prosecutor. ‘We do not use the expression IRL,’ said Peter, ‘We use AFK.’ The defendants are not out of the woods yet. Lawyer and technology writer Richard Koman wonders aloud if the Pirate Bay’s ‘I-dunno’ defense is all that much better.”

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