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By Dr.
Philip Baczewski, Director of Academic Computing and User Services
The Internet is a virtual
world. You can't actually walk between the shelves of books at
Amazon.com. You can't really be in the room with all of your
MySpace friends (adriana has 511 friends.) You don't really bump
people out of the way to win an auction on eBay. The Internet is a
virtual world, but also a real world where you can browse through
parts of a book before you buy, you can chat with your friends, and
you can feel the thrill of victory when you outbid the rest of the
world for that immensely collectable item on eBay.
Maybe it's not surprising, then, that the reality of the Internet
seems to be constantly blurred by some people's misperceptions,
deliberate disregard, or blissful ignorance. Sometimes it's hard to
tell which of those are operative in a particular situation.
So perhaps it's time for some reality checks.
It seems that Tiffany, the high-dollar jewelry company, is
suing
eBay and claiming that the online auction site is
promoting the sale of a multitude of fake Tiffany products. I guess
Tiffany prefers the PBS program
"Antiques
Roadshow" which seems to make a habit of dashing the hopes
of people who really thought that the $5.00 find at the estate sale
was going to net them a fortune. But in spite of eBay's record of
removing fake items from auction when legitimate complaints are
made, Tiffany seems to blame the marketplace rather than those who
are selling wares in the market. Once again the technology is blamed
for the misdeeds of those who use it without credit to the majority
of legitimate uses to which that technology is applied. Here's a
reality check for Tiffany. Suing eBay for causing the sale of fake
Tiffany's is like suing the sidewalks of New York City for all of
those fake Rolex's that are sold. I say we pull up those sidewalks.
The state of Massachusetts, normally progressive on technology
issues,
is proposing to make Internet-based gambling illegal and
punishable by jail time and or stiff fines. Where would you find
such a provision? In the governor's proposed bill to allow three
"real-world" casinos to be built within the state. Undoubtedly,
Massachusetts is just trying to protect their citizens from the
pernicious attraction to the ease of online gambling or could it be
that they'll rake in a couple hundred million dollars for each
physical casino and probably recoup zip from any online gambling? A
reality check for Massachusetts: if you want to safeguard your
citizens from throwing their money after unrealistic promises of
riches obtained from the Internet, pass a law making it illegal to
buy Google stock.
The Whitehouse (the one in Washington D.C.)
was recently ordered by a Federal judge to preserve copies of
all e-mails against the objections of Bush administration lawyers.
Two organizations, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington and the National Security Archive, allege the
disappearance of 5 million White House e-mails. (Why does this story
sound so
familiar?) The Whitehouse has offered to preserve all backup
tapes, but that's not sufficient for the judge. E-mail communication
is generally subject to the same retention rules and controls as
paper documents, particularly in governmental organizations. The
record of the "people's business" needs to be preserved, whether it
is transacted on paper or via fiber-optic cable. Here's a reality
check for the Whitehouse. It may not be such a great idea to rely on
tapes. Remember what happened to the last President who thought
having tapes in the oval office was a good idea? I'll give you
eighteen minutes to figure it out.
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