America’s chief driving safety regulator effectively told a crowd of telematics executives that the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (‘NHTSA’) doesn’t like social media tools in your car.
“I’m not in the business of helping people tweet better. I’m not in the business of helping people post on Facebook better,” NHTSA Administrator David Strickland told attendees at Telematics Detroit 2011.
Nothing like a little convention tension to keep particpants on their toes.
It’s that time, dear Justia readers, when we review some monthly lists. Here’s the scoop on April’s highest scoring lawyers on Justia Answers, along with a look at which Onward blog and Facebook posts readers viewed the most.
Justia’s Top 10 Legal Answerers for April 2011
There’s been a huge hullabaloo this week about a discovery by two engineers that Apple iPhones and 3G iPads log users’ locations with geo-coordinates and time stamps. A day later, it was revealed that Google’s Android operating system can store two files tracking users’ travels: one based on WiFi, and the other based on cell tower triangulation.
Oh, and one more thing. There is no federal law concerning GPS tracking, and state laws on location tracking vary.
But doesn’t turning off any location-based settings on your phone take care of the problem? Maybe.
Twice, I’ve reviewed PocketJustice by our friends at Oyez: a great app for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices for researching US Supreme Court Cases. Despite the strengths of PocketJustice, it lacked an easy way to follow current Supreme Court developments. It seems our friends at Oyez were aware of that, and have decided to release another app called OyezToday. This app for the iPhone and iPod touch is completely free through a sponsorship from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Much of the app works just like PocketJustice in that it shares the same features: bios of Supreme Court Judges, an archive of cases, and oral arguments with transcripts that follow along with playback. Unlike PocketJustice, however, this app is limited to much more current cases.
Last month was Mad March Legalness over at Justia. Here’s a rundown of last month’s highest scoring lawyers on Justia Answers, and our most popular Onward blog and Facebook posts.
Justia’s Top 10 Legal Answerers for March
Twitter libel (‘twibel’) cases are growing. Courtney Love just paid $430,000 to settle a twibel case filed by a fashion designer who accused the rocker of defaming her in a series of tweets with incredible accusations. A Welsh politician in the U.K. recently admitted to twibeling his city council opponent on election day. The cost of his settlement? Damages of £3,000, plus £50,000 in legal fees.
Although we’re not aware of any twibel case that went to verdict, we’re confident that day will inevitably come.
An NBA referee officiating the Minnesota Timberwolves January 24th 125-129 loss to the Houston Rockets has sued an AP reporter for defamation over a Tweet.
Bill Spooner has officiated over 1,000 regular season games and over 50 play-off games. During the game, Spooner called a foul on Minnesota during the second period. Timberwolves head coach Kurt Rambis loudly disagreed with the call.
Shortly thereafter AP reporter Jon Krawczynski tweeted: “Ref Bill Spooner told Rambis he’d “get it back” after a bad call. Then he made an even worse call on Rockets. That’s NBA officiating folks.” The Tweet is still online.
Sheba, Justia’s original HugPug, turns seven today!
For those of you lucky enough to have dogs around while you work, you know how wonderful it is to have these four-footed friends at any office.
Sheba, and fellow Justia pugs, Rio and Belle, along with other doggie friends Tank (aka, Le Réservoir Dog) and Mino, bring us plenty of laughs, provide unconditional love and relieve more than a little of life’s daily stresses.
The world has changed since the last time Jerry Brown was at the helm of the State of California. First elected to statewide office in 1970, Governor Brown is no stranger to campaigning throughout the “Golden State.” One major difference between the campaign that eventually brought him his first tenure as governor and his 2010 campaign was his use of social media.
Since President Barack Obama’s use of social media in his presidential campaign, many other prospective lawmakers have used social media as a way to get their message out to voters. Social media is becoming increasingly important as traditional marketing channels are becoming less effective. Printed newspaper ads, for example, are costly to run and do not reach the same number of people that a Facebook fan profile or Twitter profile have the possibility of reaching. Social media profiles are almost always free to create. However, most candidates have a paid staff member or team that creates, monitors and updates these profiles on behalf of the candidate.
The age-old investment adage “buy low, sell high” must be giving the political class a bad case of buyer’s remorse. Considering how much our nation has paid in blood and treasure to topple Saddam Hussein, Iraq may well end up being the world’s largest underwater investment ever. Worse yet, when our mission is truly accomplished, the Iraqis will repossess their nation, leaving us with our outstanding bills as souvenirs of our own folly. If only we were as savvy as those Tunisians and Egyptians, who accomplished the same for pennies on the dollar.
Maybe instead of calling for the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, our politicians should be awarding him a Congressional Gold Medal or the Presidential Medal of Freedom for following President George W. Bush’s clarion call to expand “freedom in all the world.” In terms of exposing “the pretensions of tyrants,” WikiLeaks has achieved that in spades.
© 2024 Justia
