[Air-l] MySpace sued again ...

[Hugemusic]

Possibly, but I think there's a few significant differences.

In the MySpace cases, a crime was committed by someone against a minor. 
We're not talking about "metal-inspired" teen  suicide ... perhaps more 
analogous with the record company that sold music to the Columbine 
teenagers, but I don't recall that claim being made ... at least, not in 
court ...

Also, it's not just about these court cases ... there are no numbers 
mentioned in that story, but let's assume the complainants are after another 
$30Mill each ... Does anyone know the payout figure from the first case? Has 
it settled?  Murdoch only paid $580Mill for MySpace in the first place, so 
adding $150Mill to that looks bad for the bottom line ... maybe they can 
afford it, maybe not ... there's also the compliance cost, which they have 
already tried to meet (apparently).

But it's also about the political pressure this will generate.  Parents 
forming anti-MySpace lobby groups - getting the entire legislative framework 
arround the protections that a social netwok provider must comply with 
changed.  The US government is traditionally loathe to interefere with big 
business and their practices, but they also traditionally very quickly and 
quite irrationally respond to any suggestion that children might be abused 
(see Dana Boyd on moral panics: 
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2007/01/10/a_few_more_thou.html) 
... ignoring children in danger is a sure-fire vote loser and these examples 
give the campaigners a clear rallying point ... and they're in several 
states ...

Didn't I read something the other day about crimes being committed in the 
Second Life environment??

Time will tell ... thoughts? predictions?

Cheers,
Hughie



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marj Kibby" <Marj.Kibby at newcastle.edu.au>
To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 11:01 AM
Subject: Re: [Air-l] MySpace sued again ...


> You don't think this smacks of " It's the record company's fault for
> selling my kid that heavy metal music"?
>
> I'd think that these were very small thorns in news corp's side - they
> must regularly be sued by more powerful complainants.
>
> Marj
>
>
>
> Dr Marjorie Kibby,
> Senior Lecturer in Communication & Culture
> Faculty of Education and Arts
> The University of Newcastle,  Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia
> Marj.Kibby at newcastle.edu.au
> +61 2 49216604
>>>> Hugemusic <hmusic at ozemail.com.au> 01/19/07 10:28 AM >>>
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/More-families-sue-News-Corps-MySpace/2007/01/19/1169095943390.html
>
> Will they survive this time?  How much more of this will News Ltd put up
>
> with??
>
> What more can they do?
>
> How many other sites will have the same experience??
>
> Stay tuned for more ...
>
> Cheers,
> Hughie
>
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