The USMC has banned Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and other similar social networking sites citing a potential security risk. The ban is effective on these sites while Marines are at work, using the Corps’ equipment.  It does not effect Marines’ private use on personal computers outside of their jobs.

“These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries,” reads a Marine Corps order, issued Monday.

“The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel… at an elevated risk of compromise.”

The ban will last a year as of right now, coming after a warning in July that all web 2.0 sites could  cause network security issues. All types of viruses pass from user to user on these sites.

“The mechanisms for social networking were never designed for security and filtering. They make it way too easy for people with bad intentions to push malicious code to unsuspecting users,” a Stratcom source told Wired.com.

“Yet many within the Pentagon’s highest ranks find value in the Web 2.0 tools. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has 4,000 followers on Twitter. The Department of Defense is getting ready to unveil a new home page, packed with social media tools. The Army recently ordered all U.S. bases to provide access to Facebook. Top generals now blog from the battlefield.”

It should be interesting to see how this pans out. The Pentagon even has a newly-appointed social media czar, Price Floyd.

“What we can’t do is let security concerns trump doing business. We have to do business… We need to be everywhere men and women in uniform are and the public is. If that’s MySpace and YouTube, that’s where we need to be, too,” Floyd said.

Check out the original article: Marines ban Twitter, Facebook, other sites

RealDealDocs.com is a division of Practice Technologies, Inc. the creators of SmartRules.com. SmartRules provides step by step guides to local rules and civil procedure for state courts & federal courts throughout the country.

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Someone might be losing their job over this…

Apparently Facebook has paid the founders of ConnectU  (an online community for students and alumni of colleges and universities) $65 million to settle lawsuits that were accusing the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, of stealing the idea for his insanely popular social-networking website.

“Lawyers in the heavyweight fight had expended great effort to keep the settlement secret — even going as far as persuading a judge to clear the courtroom of reporters on one occasion.”

Meant to remain confidential, ConnectU’s former lawyers from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges published the settlement amount in a marketing brochure, trumpeting the firm’s prowess.

“The ConnectU dispute got started at Harvard, where ConnectU’s founders, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra hired fellow student Zuckerberg to work on code for a dating Web site for Harvard students. They sued Facebook in 2004, accusing Zuckerberg of delaying the project while using the information to start his own Web site. He quit Harvard and moved to Palo Alto, Calif., to start the company. ConnectU’s lawyers argued that it amounted to trade secret theft and copyright infringement. Last February, Facebook agreed to settle the matter by paying to acquire ConnectU. But soon after, the ConnectU founders claimed they were hoodwinked into a cheap settlement and said they had new evidence implicating Zuckerberg.”

After winning the lawsuit last year, ConnectU fired Quinn Emanuel. The two companies are now locked in  a fee battle, with ConnectU threatening to sue the firm for malpractice, and Quinn seeking $13 million pursuant to a contingency fee agreement.

RealDealDocs.com is a division of Practice Technologies, Inc. the creators of SmartRules.com, the first online practice guide for the national litigator and the national litigation practice.

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A recent graduate of Pembroke Pines Charter High in Florida is taking legal action against her former school’s principal for allegedly violating her First Amendment rights. The student was suspended for posting negative comments on the Internet about a teacher, after school, on her own computer.

“The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court, on behalf of Katherine Evans, 18, of Pembroke Pines.

The drama began in November 2007 when Evans, a senior at the school, created a Facebook page that criticized her Advanced Placement English teacher, Sarah Phelps, as “he worst teacher I’ve ever met.”

Evans, who also posted a yearbook photo of Phelps, sought comments from other students to express their ”feelings of hatred” toward the teacher.”

Now although it might not be in good taste, the girl did it on her own time and her own computer, and never made direct contact with the teacher, so how would this lead to a suspension?

“But when Peter Bayer, the school’s principal, learned of the posting, he suspended Evans for “bullying and cyber bullying harassment towards a staff member.”

Evans had to stay out of school for three days, she was removed from her AP classes and forced into ”lesser-weighted honors classes,” according to the lawsuit.

The ACLU claims that Evans First Amendment rights — “the free and unfettered exchange of ideas and opinions in the public arena — were violated.”

Since then, Evans has graduated and moved on to college, but she still wants the suspension removed from her academic record.

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Socialnetworking is the IT thing and now the American Bar Association wants a bite. Starting a networking site of their own called Legally Minded, they say they are like no others.

“We set out to do something different,” said Fred Faulkner, the ABA’s manager of interactive services in Chicago. “We looked at a lot of the professional and personal networking. We’re filling that gap by offering the best features of sites like Linkedln and Facebook and adding a bunch of content from the ABA and other high-quality content sources.”

Now, there are other lawyer-networking sites but according to Law.com, one main difference between them and Legally Minded is that it is not just for lawyers, but for any legal professional including paralegals, law librarians, and law students.

“LegallyMinded also has an interactive people map that puts you in the center,” Faulkner says. “All the people whose interests closely align with yours will appear near you so that you can identify them and begin building relationships.”

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As an avid social media user I have been keeping my eye on this case since it started… After the conviction of Seattle’s Spam King Robert Soloway this past March on multiple charges relating to his mega-spamming operation, I knew that they were going to put their foot down, but wow, this wasn’t just a foot. They put down a size 14 steel toed work boot.

“Facebook has won an $873 million judgment against a Canadian resident for sending millions of spam messages to the Facebook social networking site. A San Jose, California Federal Judge issued the order on Friday, which is believed to be the largest to date under the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, or the CAN-SPAM Act”

The judgment was delivered against Montreal resident Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital, which is a fake business name that is used by Guerbuez.

Apparently the spam appeared in the form of posts on Facebook user profiles, and drove users to third party sites advertising things deemed to be offensive and embarrassing to a large segment of the Facebook users who received, or viewed these messages. The messages included marijuana advocation, male enhancement pills, and sexually oriented material.

The judge ordered the defendant to pay $436 million in statutory damages for harm to its reputation and goodwill, and spent additional time and money to control the spam. The rest of the money awarded went to attorney fees and costs of the lawsuit.

Social Networking is part of our lives these days.  It can be used as a part of our network to connect with colleagues and prospective employers. Guerbez’ spam could have really affected a few peoples real life by putting things that are inappropriate on their profile.

“We were obviously very happy with the judgment…” said Sam O’Rourke, a senior corporate counsel for the Palo Alto, California-based Facebook. “I wouldn’t be shocked if we didn’t recover the entire amount… but we are planning on collecting as much as we can.”

Good Riddance and Good Luck!!

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Some major drama is going down over at the Facebook enterprise in the absence of a mutually signed employment agreement. Ever since general counsel, Rudy Gadre, moved to Seattle, there is no one to lead the billion dollar company in the right direction regarding a crazy Nova Scotia woman named Deborah Nickerson who has no idea that she is crazy. Nor does she know that she DOESN’T own Facebook. In fact, she doesn’t even know that she is not the co-founder of Microsoft.

Will the real slim shady please stand up?

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s REAL co-founder and CEO, is being sent in a whirlwind by Nickerson. She even fired him recently. Corresponding with Facebook since the spring, in letters, faxes, emails, and voicemails, Nickerson “blithely acts as if she owns the company, making business and personnel decisions. She signs her letters, ‘Deborah Nickerson, Phd. Sience, and Technology, Doctor of Business, Harvard, and Acadia University, Owner of Facebook Inc., Co-Founder Microsoft Corp.’”

In one letter to Facebook CFO Gideon Yu, Nickerson writes,”I regret that you have been confused, however, I am the owner of Facebook Inc. I did not hire you. I have no contact with you. It is not possible that you are in charge of my financial well-being with no knowledge of who I am. I will accept your hostility, and false claims, and no desire to work in my presence, as your resignation.”

While lawyers have filed a restraining order in late July against Nickerson, Counsel Mark Howitson says in a declaration that Nickerson was a threat to the company.

“These threats include: statements about the ‘last chance to save Mark Zuckerberg’ unless $50,000 is transferred into her bank account; statements that she is ‘bordering on criminal acts’; and promises to ‘return’ to Facebook in the very near future.”

“She is clearly delusional,” he added.

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