WSG talks Internet Freedom on WNYT

Unless you live in a cave, you heard about yesterday’s “Internet Blackout Day.” Major sites like Google, Wikipedia, Craigslist,Wired and others blacked out portions of their sites in protest of two internet piracy bills, SOPA (Stop Internet Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). The stated goal of these bills is to protect US companies from foreign pirates, like Pirate Bay, who sell copyrighted video and audio.

Unfortunately, the ramifications of these bills could be catastrophic to internet freedom and invention.

Looking at these bills it’s clear that our lawmakers still don’t get the internet, and are working to protect the interests of an ailing entertainment industry. It also makes clear that the entertainment industry needs to re think it’s business model to account for the reality that people aren’t always going to pay for their products and find new ways to monetize, as many independent artists already do.

The protest showed how quickly information can run through the internet. It trickled down even to young kids, as some of their gaming sites also shut down in support. It also makes clear that the internet of today thrives because of sharing.

So, take my content, please. And let’s keep the flow of information free.

View the news clip

Love Letter From: Miss. Joy

I thought this delightful piece of spam was for serious real and true until I read the last line. Looks pretty inviting otherwise. But nobody, I mean NOBODY, would use the letter ‘s’ twelve times in the word ‘kiss’. Ten or eleven maybe, but not twelve.

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Hi Dear,

I was so fascinated by your id that I was left with no choice than to contact

you at once. I like to enter into a relationship with a man like you. What do

you think? Pls. let me know. Looking forward to hear from you soon .I am in

love with you ok .please send me your pic,

Thank you and God bless

Joy,

kissssssssssss me with love

Site Launch: Joseph P. Mangione, Inc.

WSG today launched JPMangione.com, a redesign of the digital home for Joseph P. Mangione, Inc.

Their owner and project lead, Gary Mangione, was a joy. He handled content creation duties on the project, somehow finding time to keep the business running and pump out pages and pages of new copy. We thank you Gary!

JP Mangione handles all manners of physical and electronic security, so, doors, closers, alarms, locksets, access controls, master key systems, for both residential and commercial clients alike.

The new site features:

Custom design
New information architecture
Light social integration
Content management
Multiple, simple calls to action

We thank everyone at JP Mangione for making WSG their firm of choice, and we look forward to continued growth, both for their site and business.

Mr. Barkev Hagopian

UPDATED: Since we’re getting random traffic for searches on “Mr. Barkev Hagopian” I’m here to tell you it is a spammer nom de plume. He’s also apparently the CEO of something called the Barkev Loan Firm, surely a demanding position, leaving him precious little time to spend with Mrs. Hagopian and all their little Hagopian children.

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Spam is funny. And by funny, I mean crippling.

Sir,

Good day to you. I am looking to work with a reputable firm to mop up most of my portfolio funds under. With your assistance I could evade high taxes that are frustrating the wealthy in US.

Can we work for the mutual beneficial relationship between yourself and my company?

I look forward to your prompt reply

Yours faithfully,

Mr. Barkev Hagopian,
USA.

The Green Lantern movie is not good. Captain America will save us.

Wait for this to show up in your Netflix queue. Two stars, tops. Next one on the (my) list is Captain America: The First Avenger, in July, which looks great to me.

WSG comments on that Congressman Weiner Twitter thing you’ve heard so much about.

There’s no such thing as privacy on social networks and web applications; there are only degrees of sharing. You can intend to share with only one person or intend to share with millions. He wrote “@username ” instead of “D @username ” and the rest is history. But what’s the difference between these two extremes of sharing? In the case of NY Congressman Andrew Weiner, it appears the difference was as slight as a keystroke, but is that really the case?

Weiner’s mistake was sending a public message when he wanted to sent a private message, but how much protection would that really have provided? What if he had succeeded in sending his lewd photo as a private missive and the recipient had turned around and posted it to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, their blog, anywhere? The point here is that once you’ve sent it, private or public, you have surrendered control of the content. And if you’ve sent it from an account which is unquestionably yours, you can’t claim it wasn’t you. You can claim someone hacked your account, but that’s not a smart move unless you can prove it. Weiner tried to say he was hacked. Tried, and failed.

So, to summarize the take away:

1. Most private case: Send a piece of content to a friend or trusted recipient and only your friend reads it.
2. Least private case: Sent a piece of content to everyone who’s looking, whether you’re aware they’re looking or not.

In case 1, when anyone can pretend to be someone they’re not, your internet trolling might end with you sending sensitive information to the wroooooong person. Then case 1 turns into case 2, and your boat is sunk.

There is no such thing as privacy on social networks. Just degrees of sharing. Be. Careful.