Egyptian court sentences blogger to 4 years in prison

This article surprised me more than anything else. I am not sure of the legal system in Egypt but I would have hoped that any citizen of the world would have the right to free speech. The man who is facing 4 years (pending an appeal) wrote negatively about the Egyptian President and about the religion of Islam in his personal blog. I think it is his right to blog about his feelings and impressions. By punishing this man the Egyptian government is taking a stand not only on the freedom of speech but the freedom of speech as it realtes to the internet. If his appeal is rejected it would set a precedent about future blog cases. Not only would it establish a precedent but it would probably deter many bloggers from writing about such issues. This case is attracting attention from around the world.

Source:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/16760332.htm

Man sues IBM over firing, says he's an Internet addict

In New York a man was fired from IBM for logging on to an adult chat site during work. He is suing IBM saying that he is suffering from an Internet addiction which in his opinion means he should not get fired but offered some sort of professional help.
The man has many things going for him in his lawsuit.
1.) He is an army veteran and says the reason he uses such sites is because he saw something traumatic when he was over seas. By using these chat rooms it distracts him from the pain he feels because of the incident.
2.) He claims that other employees with worse offenses were treated lightly. He says two employees had sex on a desk and were only transferred not fired.
3.) The day of the incident the man had just returned from visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
4.) He was denied an appeal from his employer.

If these four items end up being true which can easily be verified then I feel this man has a very strong case. The only defense IBM has so far is that the man was warned several months back. If this was a written warning it may sway the case in IBM's direction but if it was only verbal then it may be hard to prove that it even happened leaving the case to the accused.






Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/18/chat.room.lawsuit.ap/index.html

Tivo/Amazon: Video Downloads

As mentioned in the article cited below, TiVo was first in talks with NetFlix however NetFlix did not have the resources that Amazon does. The collaboration allows users to download a missed TV show episode or an entire movie for a small fee. This collaboration is called Unbox.

The introduction of Amazon to TiVo brings many things to mind. In my opinion Blockbuster and many other smaller video rental stores will suffer severely due to this new technology. The convinience of renting a movie and being able to receive it almost instantaneously can not compare to the old process of renting a video. There is less effort involved and perhaps even less money involved when considering gas, rental and late fees.

Many existing TiVo customers already have the hardware needed to use this technology. As of now Apple is the only other competition in this market but Apple's hardware would run for at least $300. Which puts the Unbox in a competitive position.

I also think that NetFlix will introduce a similar product in the not so distant future so that they can compete with the changing technology. NetFLix introduced an innovative idea by allowing people to rent from the comfort of their own home mailboxes but as technology changes so will the products.




Source:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/16641224.htm